The bathroom is a potential hazard. I discovered that on Monday. Just after lathering myself, my muscles went into spasms. My legs flexed. My body tensed. My buttocks slipped off the chair. I landed on the floor with a thud. It happened so fast. There was no time to react. My head slammed into the corner of the doorway and ramp.

I laid on the floor, naked and slippery. The impact left me dazed for a moment. The shower was still running. My right cheek and forehead throbbed. I ran my index finger across my face. My cheek was swollen and tender. There was a deep gash on the nose between the eyes. My left brow was swollen and hurting too. I was unsure if I had injured myself elsewhere. I have little sensation from chest down.

Everything was slippery. I knew that I needed to rinse away the lather off me first before anything else. After I was done, I patted myself dry with a towel. Still, I had trouble dragging myself out from the bathroom. I could not get a good grip on the wet floor tiles. I sat on a sarung and used the floormat for traction.

The scent of blood wafted in my nostrils. I dabbed to towel on my nose where the skin was broken. It was bleeding. The mid part of my face ached. I wanted to put on a sarong first. It was difficult to open the drawer from the position I was in. After a few tries, I got a clean sarong out and struggled into it.

The phone was on the bed. When I finally dragged myself there, I dialled Peter’s number. Elaine answered. The clock showed 2am. I told her I fell off the chair and needed her father to assist me up. Peter lived just one floor below and had the keys to my apartment. He came a short while later and helped me back onto the wheelchair.

After I settled down and recovered my composure, I realised that it could have been worse. I could have suffered a broken nose but that was least of the problem. That knock on the head could result in a concussion. I could have lost consciousness. As I live alone, it could have been days before I was discovered. Scary notion that.

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Rights-Based Approach To Disability

Official speeches do not interest me normally. I have heard one too many to know that they are usually rehashed and rephrased versions of feel-good stories to suit the occasion. However, the speech by Cik Norani Mohd. Hashim, Pengarah Bahagian OKU of the Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat during the conclusion of a training that I attended at Bandar Baru Sentul recently perked my attention. The four keyphrases in her speech that grabbed my interest were rights-based approach, Independent Living, Disability Equality Training and Biwako Millenium Framework (BMF).

According to Cik Norani, the Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Malaysia (JKMM) is moving away from the welfare-based approach to a rights-based one. This is encouraging news especially coming straight from the section director in a government department. A rights-based approach looks at the disabled person as a citizen with full rights equal to that of non-disabled citizens. They are involved in all decision-making processes that affect them. Every effort is made to ensure that they can participate in the activities of the society without hindrances. These include equal access to health care, education, employment, political, cultural and social activities that most people take for granted.

This approach recognises that each and every human being is unique and has varying degrees of ability. Irrespective of that, each is treated fairly by means of a social support system that takes into account the different needs and make up for it accordingly. Good examples are elevators that incorporate audio, visual and sensory devices to cater to the needs of wheelchair users, blind, deaf and non-disabled passengers. These include the appropriate positioning of the control panel for the convenience of wheelchair users, announcement and Braille buttons for the blind and visual display for the deaf.

The Biwako Millenium Framework (BMF) further reaffirms rights of disabled persons by outlining issues, targets and strategies in creating an inclusive barrier-free and rights-based society for people with disabilities in Asia and the Pacific. BMF is an inter-governmental resolution spearheaded by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). According to the website, Asia and the Pacific have 400 million disabled persons, “by far the largest number of people with disabilities in the world. Most of them are poor, their concerns unknown and their rights overlooked.”

While I see the commitment by the JKMM, a department under the Kementerian Wanita, Keluarga dan Pembangunan Masyarakat, in implementing non-handicapping policies and striving to fulfil the issues raised in BMF , I have yet to see the same firm commitment from other relevant ministries and government agencies in supporting this initiative. In this sense, the JKMM and the ministry that it is under should work more proactively in garnering commitment from other ministries and see to it that objectives of the BMF are met within the timeframe agreed upon.

Going into 2007, the JKMM will be supporting Independent Living programmes run by NGOs with personnel trained in this field – an ongoing project initiated in 2005. At the same time, the second series of Disability Equality Training will be conducted for leaders in the disability movement so that they will be able to push the concept of equality for disabled persons to members of their respective organisations and the community. These all are organised with technical support and together with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Malaysia.

The road to attaining equality for disabled persons is still a long one lined with innumerable obstacles. The largest of those obstacles is attitudinal barrier. It is not easy to change deep-rooted perceptions and misconceptions about disability. Society can play its part and help hasten the process of mainstreaming disability by discarding patronizing and paternalistic ways of thinking and replacing them with a rights-based approach.

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Mack and I had a brief chat yesterday regarding his entry I go, you no go in MonsterBlog. He recounted to me about Pak Ali who uses a wheelchair and “was waiting for his son to come pick him up and return to their home in Kampung Baru, and his son was running late. He felt bad that he had to trouble his son, but what can he do. Public transport is out of the question for him.”

Mack related how Pak Ali kept repeating that he “menyusahkan orang” because of his need for assistance and transport. There was a tinge of sadness in me when I read Mack’s message in MSN. There was no reason for Pak Ali to feel sorry whatsoever. It was not his fault that the public transport system did not make available facilities to accommodate his condition.

It has been ingrained in us that people with different needs are an inconvenience to other people. In truth, the people who have to apologise are those who did not see that needs such as Pak Ali’s are provided for. These are the myopic people in authority, officials and planners who have failed to perform to the fullest the social responsibilities that they were entrusted with.

Disabled persons are not an aberration of society. They are victims of mistaken beliefs by the majority that interprets their rights as societal burdens. Such prejudices have been perpetrated for so long that it has come to be accepted as the norm. Disabled persons are made to feel that their inability to participate fully in society is caused by their impairments rather than the unsuitable and inadequate set-up that surrounds them.

On a deeper level, the biggest challenge for disabled persons is not the environmental obstacles that they have to overcome. It is the way of thinking that sees them as people who need to be helped and treats them as such. This is the kind of mentality that is truly disabling. In many instances, such belief reduces disabled persons to charity cases, making them perpetually dependent on the mercy and generosity of the people around them to survive.

In helping disabled persons the ultimate and the most useful assistance must be one that helps him grow as a person. In Pak Ali’s case, the real assistance is not in helping to push him around in his wheelchair but in providing an environment that allows him to be as independent as possible and one that requires very little intervention from others. A barrier-free Malaysia in terms of environment and public transport will definitely make Pak Ali’s life and those of people like him more meaningful.

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