15. Take speedy action to make existing buildings more accessible to persons with disabilities. 16. Ensure that the new Family and Child Service Centres are built to recognized accessibility standards, use universal designs and carry proper signage. 17. Develop a “Future-proofing” strategy to inform designers, planners, architects, engineers and construction contractors on the need to modify the built environment and technologies at the initial stage to meet the needs of persons with disabilities and the elderly. With future proofing the need to do expensive ‘retrofits’ later to meet the needs of the population can be avoided. 18. Provide disability awareness training to all existing Family and Children Service Centre staff. 19. Provide disability awareness training to staff of Ministry of Human Resources, Youth and Sports; Ministry of Education; Ministry of Health and Family; and Maldives Police Services. 20. Provide urgently sign language training to Family and Child Services Centre staff. Sign language courses also need to be organised as evening classes and ACTIVITIES ADDRESSING RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES opened for interested public and parents. These courses can be provided by the ... 76 new hearing-impaired trainers in Male’ and can be extended to Atolls either on-line via the Teacher Resource Centres or by visiting trainers. 21. Employ urgently a sign language trained person at the Maldives Police Services and the Ministry of Health and Family. 22. Develop a ‘disability charter’ which states the fundamental purpose and philosophy of the various sector agencies with regard to protecting the rights of persons with disabilities. 23. Revise the present disability support programme to ensure outcomes-focused funding; simplify and better align assessment processes; and improve the way people access information and support. Focus needs to be on better outcomes