Disabled persons in this country are hard-pressed to believe that the government is concerned with the challenges they are facing. Despite countless pleas not to be left out in the nation’s progress, they are still struggling to cope with environmental and attitudinal barriers all the time. To add insult to injury, past mistakes are recreated in the present.

Rapid KL made a major blunder when they never took the needs of disabled persons into account and acquired non-accessible buses in 2004. Three years down the road, RapidPenang is making the same mistake when Penang State Local Government and Traffic Management Committee Chairman Datuk Dr. Teng Hock Nan announced that “for the time being, we will not be having special buses for the disabled who use wheelchairs.”

In respond to Dr. Teng’s statement, the Barrier-free Environment and Accessible Transport Group (BEAT) called for a press conference on April 14 to dispel the misconception that disabled persons and wheelchair users need special buses. These so called “special buses” are in reality non-step buses that are widely used as public buses in Japan, Australia and Hong Kong. Apart from being accessible and having places for wheelchairs inside the buses, it is just like other regular buses that the public can use.

It will be a grave mistake and an act of discrimination against disabled persons on RapidPenang’s part in not providing such accessibility. Public buses have a lifespan of between ten to twenty years, depending on how well they are maintained. Do disabled persons have to wait another ten to twenty years? Why is the government not making an effort to get it right from the beginning now that they have the opportunity to do so?

Rapid KL Taking Disabled Persons For A Ride

On September 24, 2006, Katherine Chew, Senior Manager Corporate Communications Divisions of Rapid KL announced that “the transport company had bought 100 disabled-friendly buses with ramps. These would be delivered next month.” This was in response to the attempt by the Barrier-Free Environment and Accessible Transport Group (BEAT) members to board the new Rapid KL buses at the Bangsar LRT Station. BEAT is a coalition of sixteen NGOs of disabled persons.

When BEAT met with Rein Westra, Chief Executive Officer of Rapid KL, on October 20, 2006, we were asked to give him four weeks for him to present our issue to the government. We were also specifically warned not to go to the press during this period or he will stop all communications with us. We respected the moratorium that was unilaterally set by him. That was the last we saw of him. He never got back to us after that.

Six months later on March 10, 2007, BEAT was invited to a briefing and dialogue with Rapid KL Chief Operating Officer Mohd Ali Mohd Nor. During the briefing we were informed that the buses will be coming in stages. We were told that, to date, about forty have been delivered and are in various stages of being fitted with ramps, restraining systems and other safety features for wheelchair users.

However, we are still in the dark as to when the buses will be put on the road, the routes they will ply and how this is small number of accessible buses will fit into the bigger picture to fulfil the mobility needs of wheelchair users in the Klang Valley. BEAT has already waited for six months. We are still waiting. We cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel yet where the promised accessible buses are concerned. Apa macam Rapid KL?

Earthquake 2005 Revisited

So, there was another earthquake in Sumatra and we felt the tremors here in Malaysia. Are we ready to deal with large-scale evacuation and rescue should the tremors compromise the structural integrity of the skyscrapers here? Many commercial high-rise buildings hold regular emergency evacuation drills to prepare for such eventualities.

If one can walk, evacuating from these buildings is a matter of walking down the many flights of steps and to safety. What about those with mobility impairments? Using the elevators during a fire or after an earthquake is not recommended. Using the stairs is an impossibility. Where does that leave them? Do we have rescue personnel who are well-equipped and trained to handle such situations?

After the earthquake in March 29, 2005, I wrote a letter to Dato’ Seri Shahrizat and copied it to the relevant ministries and departments. Dato’ Shahrizat directed the Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Malaysia to reply to the letter. The Chief Minister of Penang’s Office also sent a reply. And the matter ended there. I had expected the Kementerian Perumahan dan Kerajaan Tempatan and the Jabatan Bomba dan Penyelamat to look into my plight. If there really is no evacuation plan for people with mobility impairments one should be drawn up. Until now, I have not heard from them regarding this.

So, there was an earthquake yesterday. It reminded me of the tremors I experienced back in 2005. I was so frightened. I felt extremely helpless. My apartment was shaking very badly. I thought it would collapse at any moment. I could not evacuate. I thought about the plight of thousands of other people with mobility impairments who were staying in high-rise. Are we any better off now than we were in 2005? I guess not. We are stuck in our homes with no way out. Apa macam Malaysia?

Looking At A Gift Horse In The Mouth

Would you give someone a pair of shoes that are two sizes to big for her feet? Those ill fitting shoes could cause a host of problems from calluses, corns and blisters to more severe problems of the knees and ankles. Most of us would have the good sense to ensure that those shoes that we are giving are of the right size and for the purpose it was intended.

Likewise, there are wheelchairs and there are wheelchairs. Every now and then, we read in the newspapers about major corporations donating wheelchairs to those in need of one. The recipients are mostly people who are living with permanent mobility impairments. The usual scenarios are that these benefactors give away as many wheelchairs as their budget allowed in order to portray copious amounts of generosity being passed around. Unfortunately, most times, those wheelchairs are barely suitable for the recipients’ use.

Humans come in all shapes and sizes. Like shoes, a wheelchair must be of the correct size to serve the user well. An ill fitting wheelchair that is either too big or too small will cause postural problems and pressures sores, among others. Pressure sores on the buttocks and ball of the feet are expensive to manage and take a long time to heal. Postural problems, if left unattended, will result in problems such as curvature of the spine and lumbar pain.

A good fitting wheelchair is one where the user fits snugly into it much like sitting in a bucket seat. The width and length of the wheelchair seat and backrest are customised to the user’s body to ensure that pressure points are evenly distributed and a good posture is maintained. There are many other aspects to look into to fine tune the wheelchair to make it as functional as possible to suit the lifestyle of the user.

Customised wheelchairs do not come cheap and are still luxury items here. Comparatively, a basic manual wheelchair costs RM300 while a customised wheelchair costs RM6,000 upwards. That does not include a good wheelchair cushion that may add another RM1,000 or so to the cost. Given a choice, what would most well-meaning donors do? Help twenty people or just one? The solution may be obvious but the consequences of a misguided decision could be far-reaching and unpleasant.

Giving away twenty ill fitting wheelchairs could inadvertently be damning those twenty recipients to a potentially agonising journey of pressure sores and postural problems that is going to cost many times more to treat than the price of all twenty wheelchairs combined. How best can this dilemma be worked out? Frankly, I do not have all the answers for this matter.

On one hand I would like to see as many people as possible getting the assistance that they need but on the other hand I worry about the outcome of such generosity. My take is that in the long run, it would be cheaper and more logical to provide one suitable but expensive wheelchair to one person rather than treating twenty people for problems arising from using ill fitting wheelchairs. What about the other nineteen who may be in genuine need of wheelchairs too? I was made aware that some countries take care of such needs by allocating funds for customised wheelchairs for those who require it. Are we ready for such a system in Malaysia?

Most people get to know about disabled persons and disability issues from the mass media, namely through televisions and newspapers. Disability issues have been highlighted and awareness created among the public and officials in the government to the challenges faced by disabled persons. Admittedly, without the media, many important issues would have been swept under the carpet to be ignored and forgotten.

The recent rally by the Barrier-Free Environment and Accessible Transport Group (BEAT) to advocate for accessible public transport is one such example. The wide coverage by the print and electronic media has raised awareness up to the ministerial level. BEAT would not have achieved much without the support of the mainstream media.

Nevertheless, I am concerned that some articles in newspapers and programmes in televisions have a penchant to dramatise the stories that they carry. Disabled persons who have achieved their place in life are often hailed as people who have overcome extraordinary odds to reach where they are today where non-disabled persons who have accomplished the same would have been overlooked.

While there is truth to what these disabled persons have accomplished, many of those extraordinary odds are manmade. Those are barriers to equal educational and employment opportunities. And then there are barriers to public transport and in the built environment. I am not saying that by removing those barriers, disabled persons can achieve more. However, is it not ironic that we are applauding these people for overcoming the hardships that we created for them in the first place?

Another angle that the media like to use is the sympathy approach. As they say, a picture paints a thousand words. Images of a man with skin and bones for limbs certainly can tug at one’s heart strings, and purse strings. It is undeniable that we are a nation of generous people. That said, sympathy should not be used as a tool to canvass for donation. It is an undignified portrayal of disabled persons. Disability should never be manipulated in such ways to make the public part with their money, however worthy the causes may be. Disabled persons do not need sympathy. They need opportunities to realise their full potential.

If the media is truly interested in supporting disabled persons who are in need of assistance, they should work with reputable non-governmental organisations on sustainable projects that not only benefit one individual momentarily but an entire community in the long run. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. You then have to give him another fish tomorrow and the day after and the day after. Teach him to fish and you feed him for life.

Education is one way to lift disabled persons up from the marginalised position that they are in today. They need to understand their rights and their needs and advocate for it. They need to understand that the nation as a system entrusted to look after the interests of citizens, and not their family alone or even public and corporations, is responsible for their well-being, and work towards making the nation play their part responsibly.

What disabled persons do not need is dramatisation of their lives with pathetic scripts and pitiful images for the sake of soliciting money that can only maintain them temporarily. Is the mass media ready to play a positive part to empower disabled persons by highlighting the inequalities that they are facing and what can be done to right those wrongs? Will they portray it from a rights-based approach angle? Or will they continue to portray disabled persons as helpless beings and tell tear-jerking stories to gather sympathy for short term gains?