Disabled people still dream of equal access

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.