MBPJ must continue championing disabled persons’ rights

More than 300 persons from around the country attended a special disability seminar-cum-workshop in Petaling Jaya,Selangor, a fortnight ago.

The main organiser was the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ).

The local council has to date won as many as six prestigious awards. Five of them were here from Malaysia.

The sixth one is an international achievement. It was won from New Delhi in India.

All of MBPJ's awards are for the council's innovative and untiring efforts to make Petaling Jaya accessible for all persons, including the disabled and the elderly.

Many of the right persons who have the power to make a difference from across the country were invited; and duly turned up for the two-day event.

They included architects, town planners, engineers and relevantexperts from the building and environmental fields.

I was there too with some of my activist friends in wheelchairs. Our presence contributed to a lively discussion during question time with the speakers. Most of them were sourced locally whilst one came from Singapore.   

A blind participant quizzed a speaker who assisted recently in revising the "Malaysian Standards of MS1184:2014 Universal Design and Accessibility in Built Environment code of practice." He wanted to know whether as a blind person, he was allowed to use the wheelchair handicapped slot to park if someone had driven him there.

Surprisingly, the speaker said it was okay, but when several wheelchair participants objected, she made an about turn and said, "No, it was NOT okay."

The wheelchair users made a strong argument that the blind could be dropped off anywhere as they had no physical disability, nor were able to drive cars.

It was also pointed out that the blind were in fact, very independent compared to them as they are able to take the public bus to get around. 

"It also makes no sense for the deaf to use the disabled slots as they too do not have any physical handicap," another participant said during the discussion.

Another wheelchair user told me after the conference that whilst he gave the thumbs up to MBPJ for organising such events from time to time, he thought more effort should be made to get more ordinary disabled persons to also become speakers in such sessions.

I think he made a great point.Often it is people with disabilities who are able to drive home the point to the able-bodied in the most salient way.

Much of the video and slides shown at the event brought a lot of positive memories for me.I had the privilege to work with quite a few of the disabled-friendly projects since I was councillor with MBPJ for five yearsfrom July 2008.

Here are the most notable:  

– The setting up of a disability committee by MBPJ Planning Director Puan Sharipah Marhaini in the year 2000 was oneof the best things that the council did. The move was inspired shortly after she attended a UN conference in Bangkok in Thailand to get things going for the disabled in the region. The initiative, unfortunately however, started losing steam after a while until I joined.

It quickly became a hub of sorts for all the activitiesplanned by MBPJ. Planners and architects had to attend our meetings and have us painstakingly go through theirdetails before we authorised them the green light to go ahead with their plans.

Despite having their architectural manual with them, it was surprising to note how many things they still didn't understand about people with disabilities and their needs.

Things like why disabled-friendly toilets should be built in EVERY floor, and not just in some places. Engineers also often didn't understand why a "talking lift" was vital for the blind in order to tell them which floor to navigate themselves.

– MBPJ, as far as I know, was the first to come up with disabled friendly car parks with a shelter. At first, people were puzzled with the idea and thought that we were asking for too much.

However, they now appreciate the longer time wheelchair users take to get in and out of their vehicles – and howthe feature effectively protects them from the sun and rain in our unforgiving weather.

– The most touching, and by far the furthest reaching project was MBPJ's effort in upgrading the living conditionsof the disabled in the poor areas like Taman Medan. MBPJ sent out a team of dedicated staff to identify what special needs the people there, especially the disabled, needed.

The council found out that many of the disabled and the elderly were not even able to access their own bathrooms with their wheelchairs and walkers.

The council renovated it for them at MBPJ's expense. I can still remember the million-ringgit smiles on the faces of those who received this service.

Well done MBPJ! Please keep up with your good work for the disabled in Petaling Jaya. – June 15, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.