Inclusive Society and Disabled People
When we talk about blinds or disabled people, most of us might encounter these feelings of sorrow for their misfortunes. Personally, I could not imagine what it might be like if I lost the sensory one day. I thought that I would probably hang around, incapable of doing things.
I always wonder how they live their lives, who take care of them or even choose to wear proper clothes for specific events. When I think about blindness, I see the difficulty.
I joined a great exhibition called dialogue in the dark. It is a tour where you will experience how it is like being in their shoes for an hour, living their life routines, in the complete darkness. Without knowing that the guide was blind, what I felt at that moment was sympathy. I felt very sorry for what they had to go through. Seeing them living their life like that somehow hurts me. But when time passed by, I tend to forget about that moment.
Last year, I had a chance to work with an inclusive community. This social enterprise is called ‘Blind Experience’. Its community values all members: youth, seniors, newcomers, and persons with disabilities. It was a time that I got to know blinds. I was so unsure about how to act or how to talk to them. I was also uncertain whether my acts or my words would hurt their feelings somehow.
I had a great talk with the blind adult who became a good friend of mine. The problems that I thought blinds would face turned out to be invalid. Most of my assumptions crashed. He never felt a lack of motivation and misfortunes in his life. He turned his flaw into a gift. He became one of my inspirations to advocate an inclusive society.
What disability people want is to have the right to get support from the government equal education as others’. They do not have enough of the fundamental rights of education that affect the quality of life and lack of opportunities to be discriminated against in social activities. They feel left behind and unable to be a force to move the country. These are what they wanted, to be EQUAL to others, neither sympathy nor empathy.
The COVID-19 situation makes job opportunities for disabled people even worse. The economy is slowing down. People were forced to leave their jobs; that said, job positions for disabilities are declined. This impacts their living dimensions and leads to a high cost of living.
It might be the ‘good luck’ of the government that we have a relatively good public health system. However, no matter how well the public health system we have, the big obstacle for their lives is social distancing. Social distancing separates disabled people from society. Most of their careers involve human contact (e.g., touch). Blind people cannot avoid touching others when traveling. He could not drive by himself and most likely not to own a car. Therefore, it was greatly affected by the situation.
There are around 192,000 blinds in Thailand and about 2 million people with disabilities. This year’s record (Sept 2020) by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security shows that only 31 percent of disabled people aged 15 to 59 are employed. While 21 percent is capable of working but unemployed, 6 percent is not skilled in working, and 41 percent- the rest of them- is not willing to give information.
Rights and Design
Ironically, most blind people take public transportation. When they arrive at the BTS or MRT station, they have to take the walkway to wherever the destination is. People with eye sights may think that the walkway over there is just an easy straight walk. But imagine what the blind experiencing during the rush hour. A blind that I have talked to said that he has to pay all of his attention to his stick while walking in this big walkway. All concentrations must be used to dodge passersby, avoid poles, block ways, and protruding objects or corners.
Blind people do not typically want to be a burden to others. But the corridors do not allow them to travel by themselves. Braille blogs are, therefore, a navigational tool that we cannot deny that they are essential in helping the blind to travel on their own.
However, Braille blogs are not the end solution. But it is an essential element that must have and must be done correctly, in a particle way, for the blind to travel freely. That criticism is that building Braille blogs is open to corruption or takes a considerable budget should vanish. And we all should pay attention to having sidewalks for everyone, for the better definition of ‘Inclusive Society’.
What the state heals for the disabled now is all because of the pressures of disabled people. Disabled people raise their pressure everywhere. They propose the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Department and proposals from the Senate. They are showing here that it is not easy for disabled people to win their rights.
Disability Inclusion
I can still see the numbers of unemployed, disabled people growing every quarter reports provided by the government. We cannot wait for the government, and we cannot wait for the disabled to raise their voices. As I mentioned before, disabled people wanted to be equal to normal people. What I would like to call out here is the ‘Disability Inclusion’.
Why is disability inclusion important? What WE- as an individual person- can do to promote it? Since Equality is what they ask us, we should understand the relationship between the way people function and how they participate in society. And also make sure everybody has the same opportunities to participate in every aspect of life to the best of their abilities and desires.
Even some regular social activities such as transportation, access to education, and adequate health care might be challenging for an individual to take action on. My intention in writing this blog is to encourage you to be more open about these groups of people, including people with disabilities in everyday activities, and encourage them to have roles similar to us. Just do the first step :-)
