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)