Disabled people still dream of equal access

Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The lack of wheelchair access to school facilities and transportation services forced Dera Maya Sofi to quit her studies at a private university, shattering her dreams of working in the hotel industry.

Now she contemplates suicide.

Paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident six-years ago, Dera, 26, decided to quit university because the campus building and bus services could not be accessed by her wheelchair.

"It's like a nightmare. I don't have access to buses, campus classrooms and the toilets. I feel like committing suicide because I know what the future holds without a degree," Dera told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of Tuesday's celebration of International Handicapped People's Day.

Dera is just one of the country's millions of handicapped people who struggle to access many public places, including schools, universities, government offices and transportation services.

Coordinating Minister for Social Welfare Jusuf Kalla said last Tuesday that the government had launched a national program aimed at improving access to handicapped people two years ago, with the Gambir train station as one of the pilot projects.

The station's bathrooms, however, are too small for wheelchaired people to enter.

Places like the Istiqlal Grand Mosque and Jakarta municipality office also do not provide any elevators or bathrooms for wheelchaired people, or direction signs written in braille for the blind.

Meanwhile, bumpy pavements, small alleys and scattered rubbish and other obstacles make it almost impossible for handicapped people to use traditional markets.

The House of Representatives (DPR) endorsed on Nov. 21 a bill on buildings that guarantees access for handicapped and the elderly.

The bill, which is yet to be signed into law by President Megawati Soekarnoputri, prescribes sanctions for building owners failing to comply. The sanctions include the withdrawal of building certificates and a maximum penalty of 10 percent of the building's value.

Minister of Social Affairs Bachtiar Chamsyah said Tuesday that his ministry had sent letters to provincial administrations to build facilities that would allow the handicapped and the elderly to access public places.

Bachtiar was also pessimistic about suggestions to impose a disabled quota of at least one percent of the total number of employees at both state-owned and private firms.

"I have to admit that it is hard to implement such a quota in times of crisis like this. It is impossible for us to insist on requiring companies to hire handicapped people while they are in the process of laying off workers," he said.

Bachtiar said his ministry had trained at least 100 handicapped people every year at its workshop in Cibinong, West Java, 80 percent of whom were recruited by private firms, mostly Japanese companies.

The figures are not relieving enough as, according to the World Health Organization (WTO), the number of handicapped people in Indonesia accounts for 10 percent of the country's population of 215 million.

Meanwhile, Steven Allen, representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) in Indonesia told the Post on the occasion that handicapped people were required to be active, dynamic, vocal and not to be silent in a bid to ensure they were appreciated and not forgotten by other people.

"I think there will be some progress of their fate if they work on their potential as their strength. They must be strong because nobody is fully handicapped," he said.

Allen said that it was also important to ensure that handicapped people, especially children, had the same access to services, facilities, and opportunities as other people.

"Therefore it is important to put handicapped people in the mainstream in every policy, especially in education, health, and other activities," he said.

Allen said leaders, politicians and society must continue to push for the implementation of existing regulations.

Pro-handicapped people rulings

1. Law No. 4/1997 on Handicapped People.

2. Minister of Infrastructure's Decree No. 468/KPTS/1998 on Technical Requirements for Accessibility of Building and Surrounds.

3. Ministry of Transportation's Decree No. 71/1999 on Facilities for the Elderly, Handicapped and Ailing People on Means of Transportation.

4. Jakarta Gubernatorial Decree No. 6/1981 on the Provision of Equipment for the Handicapped in Public Places, Shopping Centers, Offices and Apartment Housing.