Are the disabled close to equality?

By Inge Komardjaja

BANDUNG (JP): The International Day for Disabled People on Dec. 3 is held to commemorate the existence and plight of disabled people. They are the world's largest minority and most of them live in Asia and the Pacific.

The end of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002, is just around the corner. Two more years from now we can assess whether the goal of equal opportunities is a growing realization.

During the past eight years, developing countries have witnessed actions aimed at empowering the disabled through education and training, employment and creating accessible environments.

Regarding physical accessibility, pilot projects to install ramps for wheelchair users and those with walking problems, guiding blocks on sidewalks and sound signals to help the blind cross roads are examples all cities should follow. Unfortunately, the life span of these facilities is short.

The speaker installed at one of the traffic lights on a thoroughfare in Bandung has not worked for a couple of years.

The major cause for these not so successful endeavors lies in the nondisabled population's unfamiliarity with disabled people. With all the good intention of government organizations, NGOs and the private sector in raising the quality of life of disabled people, they remain excluded from society.

In everyday life, the nondisabled keep their distance from the disabled, who then become merely objects to be stared at. The nondisabled are largely ignorant of how to lend disabled people a hand, and feel uncomfortable in approaching them.

Even families conceal their disabled members. Indonesia and other less developed countries are still just beginning to deal with disability problems. That the disabled face prejudice in nearly every area of life is not surprising.

It is thus intriguing to argue for the use of the term "people with different abilities" rather than the term "disabled people". Nowadays, the leaders among the disabled are introducing the abbreviation "diffable", which stands for different ability. The abbreviation seems to cover up their disabilities, saying that they are just different, as each individual is.

In reality, euphemisms do not redress the marginalization of disabled people to help them gain social and economic inclusion.

"Diffable" now takes the Indonesian form of difabel, which is even more puzzling.

As a disabled woman myself, I choose "disabled people", which is clear and uncomplicated. It implies the social, economic and cultural barriers on top of impairment, whereas "different" signifies nothing because everyone is different, but not everyone experiences disability.

"Different" takes away the political meaning of the situation of being disabled. In developed countries, the disability rights movement tries to convert shame of impairment into pride.

Low-educated and illiterate people are not complicated in how they think and do not try to appear fancy and use humane words. They bluntly say blind, deaf or crippled to refer to people with one of these disabilities.

They cannot comprehend winding terms such as "people with visual or hearing impairments", or "people with ambulant disability". It is often the educated and elite who draw a line between the disabled and nondisabled.

In a recent workshop titled Realizing Accessible Public Facilities for All, held by the Ministry of Settlement and Regional Infrastructure in Jakarta on Nov. 7, it was heartening to see that most presenters used the term "disabled" (penyandang cacat).

The difabel abbreviation can include people with many forms of mobility impediments, such as pregnant women, people with bone or muscle injuries, toddlers, the elderly and people carrying loads -- making confused the special needs of the disabled.

The experience of Hirotada Ototake, a young Japanese wheelchair user without arms and legs, should be cited here. The author of No One's Perfect was admitted to the private and prestigious Waseda University in Tokyo on the basis of passing the entrance test.

The university installed ramps and built wheelchair-accessible toilets, not only in the school where he took his courses, but also in public spaces on the campus so he could move around independently.

The goal of the university is to be an open university, which means that it should be accessible to disabled students. This was done due to a campaign chaired by one disabled person, Ototake himself.

The bottom line was the attempt to give everyone an equal opportunity and to end discrimination against disabled people. When such equal opportunities have been realized, only then can we use the phrase "people with different abilities".

The writer works with the Research Institute of Human Settlement Technology at the Ministry of Settlement and Regional Infrastructure in Cileunyi, Bandung in West Java.