Removing barriers for disabled people

International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) was celebrated on Dec 3 last week.


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Providing wheelchair access for the disabled is one of the most important aspect in helping disabled people to participate fully in normal lives.

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The special United Nations designated event which was first observed 21 years ago, was set up to draw attention to the struggles and plight of the present over one billion people living with disabilities around the globe.

The disabled roughly make up 15 per cent of the world’s population – earning them the position to be regarded as the largest minority group in the globe.

Disabled people face all kinds of barriers in society.

They have trouble making friends, earn little or nothing at all and virtually remain as “prisoners” of their homes. This is because of the outside environment that grossly ignores their special needs in getting around in society.

Back to the drawing board

In the washroom, the water closet wasn’t exactly in the place where it should be.

The mirror, hand soap container and air dryer were out of reach for wheelchair users. The door, which commendably was a sliding one, however didn’t have a proper a grab handle to help the disabled open it without difficulty.

Even the disabled car parks that we checked last Monday already had an able-bodied driver abusing the facilities by parking his car in it.

So, it is back to the drawing board for the shopping centre. MBPJ will be sending them a letter instructing them to promptly correct the flaws. Our team is in the midst of preparing our report first.

And another follow up inspection will be made us in the near future before everything is approved for the building.

Providing wheelchair access for the disabled is one of the most important aspect in helping disabled people to participate fully in normal lives.

For any would-be employer to want to take in a disabled worker, it is vital that they have disabled friendly car parks and washrooms for wheelchairs to fully and properly cater for a special community that have deplorably been left out of our society and lives.

Their worst problem is how non disabled perceive them and exclude them from participating fully and effectively as equal members of society.

People with disabilities are among the world’s poorest communities and individuals. In addition to not having equal access to basic resources, most of them are not educated and even have serious problems in getting proper healthcare. This results in a higher rate of mortality for them.

This year’s theme for IDPD is, “Break Barriers, Open Doors: for an inclusive society and development for all.”

Getting rid of obstacles that prevent disabled residents from participating fully in the city of Petaling Jaya is a major challenge our local council (MBPJ) has been trying to achieve since I became councillor in 2008.

To achieve this, a monthly meeting of technical committee on disabled friendly facilities and issues was set up.

The group comprises of not only experts on planning, engineering, landscape and building, but we also have invited persons with various kinds of handicaps to join us too.

Their purpose in participating with us is to provide valuable information as end users of such facilities.

So over the years, we were able to gather feedback from the blind, physically disabled (both paraplegics and tetraplegics), the Deaf, persons with learning disabilities, little persons, persons with Parkinson’s, stroke and even people with mental illness.

Attitudinal barriers

The interesting aspect about this exercise is how we came to discover how little architects and developers really knew and understood about handicaps even though their job is to provide disabled friendly facilities in public buildings.

In our technical meeting a couple of days ago, for example, we were quite surprised to encounter some architects who hadn’t a clue as to why the blind needed guiding blocks on the floor, or tactile markers to help them find their way about independently.

They were quite surprised when our blind members told them they needed these special markers to the lifts, as well as to the staircases. They didn’t realise that the visually impaired (those who are totally blind and those with partial sight) could use the stairs.

Last week, our committee also conducted a spot check in a newly opened shopping centre in Ara Damansara in PJ.

They had come to us before they constructed their building. Now it was time for us to check up on them to see if they had done their homework properly.

Although we were delighted that theirs was one of the newer buildings with undoubtedly better facilities, we were disappointed however to discover several flaws in their designs.

Somehow, they had not stuck to the specific details that we had given them.

Not all the ramps, for example, had gradients that were comfortable enough for wheelchair users to independently manoeuvre on.

They didn’t think that all their entrances needed such requirements.

They had somehow expected shoppers with disabilities to go to the “disabled section” and enter and exit from there.

We pointed out to them that this was a rather condescending attitude for them to adopt.

Disabled people should be given the freedom to enter into the building from anywhere that non disabled shoppers had the privilege to do so.

They also seemed to have forgotten that making their entrances accessible and safe for wheelchairs would also make it friendly for babies in prams and the shopping carts.

This is what is meant by “attitudinal barriers” that the UN says we need to overcome.

Anthony SB Thanasayan is a wheelchair and animal activist. He is also a city councillor.
Source : Free Malaysia Today , 11th December 2013