Government asked to provide special facilities for the disabled
Government asked to provide special facilities for the disabled
JAKARTA (JP): Despite the apparent minimal use of existing
facilities for the disabled, calls for the government to provide
special facilities for the physically challenged in public places
are increasing.
Otje Soedioto from the Indonesian National Board for Persons
with Different Abilities (DNPCI) noted that few public buildings
are accessible to the disabled.
The former journalist for the now defunct Berita Yudha daily
however conceded said that the facilities already provided such
as those at the Gambir railway station in Central Jakarta, were
not being optimally used.
The railway station is equipped with special services to
facilitate the blind and persons in wheelchairs.
The services were inaugurated by President Abdurrahman Wahid
in June last year.
"But now it's still unclear whether they are being optimally
used," Otje told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview on
Saturday.
President Abdurrahman is himself almost blind while First Lady
Sinta Nuriyah uses a wheelchair for mobility.
"If you ever go to the presidential palace, if it weren't for
the first lady, there would be no physical access for persons in
wheelchairs there," Otje added.
The railway station is the only station in Jakarta which is
equipped with special telephone booths, a ticket window,
restrooms and a parking lot for the blind and the wheelchair-
bound.
Such facilities are also available in train stations in
Bandung, Yogyakarta and Surabaya.
Otje maintained that these special facilities are not used
much because information on their existence is not widely
disseminated.
"Or maybe because they (the disabled) simply don't have the
necessity to go to Gambir station," he added.
Nur, a blind masseur in her 40s, admitted that she had never
heard of the facilities provided for people with disabilities at
Gambir railway station.
"I didn't know about that, and I don't know anybody who has
ever used the facilities," the mother of two told the Post on
Saturday afternoon.
Residing in Jakarta since 1981, Nur prefers to go back to her
village near Semarang, Central Java, by bus since she is not
familiar with the railway station.
"Even if I had to go by train, it would be with my relatives
and it would always be from the Jatinegara railway station which
is nearer to my house," the resident of Jl. Pancoran Timur, South
Jakarta, said.
Gambir's deputy stationmaster Mul A. Mauluddin said the
station would soon also be equipped with special elevators for
wheelchair-bound persons.
"The users of these facilities are mostly people in
wheelchairs, along with old and sick people who need to be
wheeled to the train."
"Other disabled people, like the blind, are usually
accompanied. I have only seen two blind persons on their own who
used the facilities in Gambir," he told the Post on Sunday.
Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra said
earlier that in order to protect the disabled's rights of access
to public facilities, his office would send a circular to the
ministries concerned reminding them that public transportation
and buildings should be equipped with these facilities.(bby)