Progress has been made, but more needs to be done to integrate people with disabilities fully into society
05:55 AM Dec 04, 2010
It was toilet humour, of a sort. "There are 'wheelchair toilets' that are too small. When you wheel it in, you can't close the door," Mr Julian Wee, who has cerebral palsy, observed wryly.
Then there was another public loo meant for disabled persons that he'd encountered - sporting wheelchair-unfriendly steps. Such little ironies capture, in a nutshell, the stops, starts and partial advances over the last few years in improving life for the physically disabled in Singapore.
Friday marked the annual observance of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. And with the Government's Enabling Masterplan in its penultimate year - after being launched in February 2007 as a blueprint for expanding disability services in Singapore - it is perhaps timely to take stock of how far persons with disabilities feel they've managed to merge with the able-bodied mainstream.
By the Government's estimate, the disabled make up 3 per cent of the population here - there is no official figure as disability "is a complex phenomenon", a spokesman said.
And, on the one hand, the signs of progress are reason to raise some cheers.
"Things have improved quite a lot in these few years. There are now buses for the handicapped and lifts at the MRT station," said Ms Tan Li Li, a wheelchair user who works at the Society for the Physically Disabled's (SPD) production workshop.
Those who have achieved successful careers, like Mr Wee, 33, an economist at a Shenton Way research firm, also help dispel outdated stereotypes about what the physically handicapped are capable of and, just as importantly, increase the "visibility" of this group in everyday society. The rousing sports successes of Singapore's Paralympians also have won the community new levels of respect.
On television, disabled characters are finding their way into popular culture here - besides the wheelchair-bound Artie in the hit American series Glee, they have been protagonists in Channel 8 dramas too.
So, if Singapore has come some way in being more inclusive for those with physical disabilities, why do some things still feel the same? There are still lifts with buttons too high for wheelchair users to reach; ATMs with raised platforms; disabled-friendly toilets that are locked or used as storerooms, cited Ms Joyce Wong, an assistant director at SPD.
NOT QUITE GETTING AROUND
Even though buses and the MRT are becoming more disabled-friendly, Mr Wee mostly takes taxis to get around. He found getting across the massive Wheelock Place/Tangs junction at Orchard Road - including navigating the warren of underpasses - so difficult a few months ago, that he "had to take a cab around".
These gaps in accessibility prevent persons with disabilities from being fully part of society and render them relatively "invisible", he feels.
Then there is Mr Lee Ling Chuan, a wheelchair-user who sells TOTO lottery tickets near his home in Bedok, who had never been on a wheelchair-accessible bus (WAB) as he hadn't seen any where he lived, he said. (The first WAB service was launched by SBS Transit in June 2006; six more services launched on Thursday have brought the total to 61.)
For disabled persons who don't live near an MRT station or bus stop with WAB service, they must depend on taxis or arranged transport - which comes up against the issue of affordability. "A large proportion of our clients are from the lower-income group," said Ms Wong of the SPD, which serves about 3,000 disabled persons and caregivers.
"Transport is a holistic thing. You can't have it piecemeal," Mr Wee argued. "In the last 10 years ... (the authorities have) flattened down kerbs, they've introduced tactile surfaces for the visually handicapped ... but ultimately, there are still many places which aren't very accessible."
Ms Wong added: "Connectivity from point to point - from transport to buildings, buildings to public areas, from transport to housing ... must be there, in the next phase to improve 'visibility' for persons with disabilities."
There is also a social and economic cost to factor in, Mr Wee noted. When disabled persons can't get around, their social life is curtailed. "These days, how you do in a job interview matters quite a bit ... Even able-bodied people get nervous at interviews, what more a disabled person who has not had much contact with able-bodied people, or in a social setting - it's going to be quite nerve-wracking."
TARGETS TO MEET
On an encouraging note, national targets are in place. All public buses are to be wheelchair-accessible by 2020 and more than 70 per cent of MRT stations will have at least two barrier-free access routes by the end of next year, according to a spokesperson from the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.
The retrofitting of MRT stations with disabled-friendly features has taken over a decade, while work to make all bus routes accessible to wheelchairs has involved bus interchanges, kerbs and other infrastructure.
In addition, a $40-million Accessibility Fund incentivises the upgrading of private buildings, while Town Councils are upgrading all HDB precincts with barrier-free accessiblity features by next year.
Though it was made mandatory in 1990 for buildings to provide such accessibility, "there remains a large stock of buildings built before 1990 that are not barrier-free", said Mr Chin Chi Leong, the Building and Construction Authority's Commissioner of Buildings. In this, the public sector is taking the lead and about 98 per cent of key Government buildings now have "at least basic barrier-free features", said Mr Chin.
One factor has given vital impetus to the drive to make the island more handicap-accessible: The silver tsunami.
It used to be argued that, as the number of disabled persons was relatively tiny, accessibility features were not cost-effective. In the 1980s, disability advocates like Mr Edmund Wan, a polio survivor, called for special needs to be considered in the MRT system. "The reasons given then were that we are just a minority, we are difficult to handle in an emergency," said the retiree, a committee member of the Handicaps Welfare Association.
The tune has changed, observers note, with one in five persons expected to be aged 65 or older by 2030, and the needs of the elderly overlapping with those of the disabled. The BCA promotes the adoption of Universal Design, giving access for the widest possible range of needs from the elderly to families with prams, persons temporarily handicapped through illness or injury, and even foreigners who don't speak the lingo.
In retrospect, Ms Wong noted: "It's more expensive to retrofit a place that has been built than to put in those features at the start."
TYPECAST AS SUPPLICANTS
Another apparent sign of progress is that the disabled are making inroads into mainstream jobs. Bizlink, a Government-appointed job agency for persons with disabilities, placed more than 600 in jobs in the past three years. In the latest financial year 2009/2010, it put more in mainstream employment than it did in sheltered workshops that employ only disabled persons.
Weekend Today also spoke to teachers, engineers, accountants and professionals who just happened to have physical disabilities.
But there is still a fair way to go for disabled persons to become visible, familiar members of society who aren't pigeonholed as "victims" or helpless.
"Cab drivers are very surprised when they learn that I work and that I can speak English," said Mr Wee. "For the most part, you only see disabled persons in the mass media when they're appealing for donations ... There's that typecasting that happens, inadvertently."
Televised fundraisers like the laudable President's Star Charity raise substantial funds for Singaporeans with disabilities, who in turn often perform on the show, displaying their musical and other admirable talents. Even so, stereotypes of supplication - however inadvertent or well-intentioned - accentuate the status gap between those who give and those who receive.
Meanwhile, local TV has featured the disabled as, for example, among the underprivileged who get home-makers in the Channel 5 docu-reality programme RenovAID. There was also Beyond The Physical, in the lead-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, on the "lesser-known world of disabled sports and athletes through the eyes of their able-bodied counterparts", said Ms Kim Wong-Nathan, VP Network Commissioning, Channel 5.
Channel 8 Mandarin dramas such as Your Hand in Mine, Taste of Love and The Shining Star have featured disabled main characters.
But sometimes raw nerves are touched when TV shows feature disabled persons. When the BBC chose one-armed presenter Cerrie Burnell to co-host a children's show on the CBeebies channel, a handful of parents claimed she scared children - one squeamishly complained she should "pull her sleeve down a bit more". American series Glee also got brickbats - for hiring an able-bodied actor to play the wheelchair-bound Artie.
In general, SPD's Ms Wong said, TV dramas featuring the disabled "often portray a person who is helpless" and in this respect, the media could do more to fight stereotypes.
It could also perhaps help educate the public. Mr Lim Chin Heng, a deaf maths resource teacher in a mainstream school, said he was once asked why he and his friends were using sign language - was it because he had a short tongue and couldn't speak?
Certainly, there is much more that would help the physically disabled be more visible in Singapore life. Accountant May Low, who is deaf, said the small pool of interpreters made it difficult for deaf persons to fully participate in society.
In the assessment of Mr Ron Chandran-Dudley, who is visually handicapped, and has been working on disability issues for close to six decades: "Awareness of the capabilities of disabled persons is increasing".
For his part, Mr Wan hopes that one day, disability will be considered like "race - nothing particularly significant", just part of the fabric of Singapore life.
Then there was another public loo meant for disabled persons that he'd encountered - sporting wheelchair-unfriendly steps. Such little ironies capture, in a nutshell, the stops, starts and partial advances over the last few years in improving life for the physically disabled in Singapore.
Friday marked the annual observance of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. And with the Government's Enabling Masterplan in its penultimate year - after being launched in February 2007 as a blueprint for expanding disability services in Singapore - it is perhaps timely to take stock of how far persons with disabilities feel they've managed to merge with the able-bodied mainstream.
By the Government's estimate, the disabled make up 3 per cent of the population here - there is no official figure as disability "is a complex phenomenon", a spokesman said.
And, on the one hand, the signs of progress are reason to raise some cheers.
"Things have improved quite a lot in these few years. There are now buses for the handicapped and lifts at the MRT station," said Ms Tan Li Li, a wheelchair user who works at the Society for the Physically Disabled's (SPD) production workshop.
Those who have achieved successful careers, like Mr Wee, 33, an economist at a Shenton Way research firm, also help dispel outdated stereotypes about what the physically handicapped are capable of and, just as importantly, increase the "visibility" of this group in everyday society. The rousing sports successes of Singapore's Paralympians also have won the community new levels of respect.
On television, disabled characters are finding their way into popular culture here - besides the wheelchair-bound Artie in the hit American series Glee, they have been protagonists in Channel 8 dramas too.
So, if Singapore has come some way in being more inclusive for those with physical disabilities, why do some things still feel the same? There are still lifts with buttons too high for wheelchair users to reach; ATMs with raised platforms; disabled-friendly toilets that are locked or used as storerooms, cited Ms Joyce Wong, an assistant director at SPD.
NOT QUITE GETTING AROUND
Even though buses and the MRT are becoming more disabled-friendly, Mr Wee mostly takes taxis to get around. He found getting across the massive Wheelock Place/Tangs junction at Orchard Road - including navigating the warren of underpasses - so difficult a few months ago, that he "had to take a cab around".
These gaps in accessibility prevent persons with disabilities from being fully part of society and render them relatively "invisible", he feels.
Then there is Mr Lee Ling Chuan, a wheelchair-user who sells TOTO lottery tickets near his home in Bedok, who had never been on a wheelchair-accessible bus (WAB) as he hadn't seen any where he lived, he said. (The first WAB service was launched by SBS Transit in June 2006; six more services launched on Thursday have brought the total to 61.)
For disabled persons who don't live near an MRT station or bus stop with WAB service, they must depend on taxis or arranged transport - which comes up against the issue of affordability. "A large proportion of our clients are from the lower-income group," said Ms Wong of the SPD, which serves about 3,000 disabled persons and caregivers.
"Transport is a holistic thing. You can't have it piecemeal," Mr Wee argued. "In the last 10 years ... (the authorities have) flattened down kerbs, they've introduced tactile surfaces for the visually handicapped ... but ultimately, there are still many places which aren't very accessible."
Ms Wong added: "Connectivity from point to point - from transport to buildings, buildings to public areas, from transport to housing ... must be there, in the next phase to improve 'visibility' for persons with disabilities."
There is also a social and economic cost to factor in, Mr Wee noted. When disabled persons can't get around, their social life is curtailed. "These days, how you do in a job interview matters quite a bit ... Even able-bodied people get nervous at interviews, what more a disabled person who has not had much contact with able-bodied people, or in a social setting - it's going to be quite nerve-wracking."
TARGETS TO MEET
On an encouraging note, national targets are in place. All public buses are to be wheelchair-accessible by 2020 and more than 70 per cent of MRT stations will have at least two barrier-free access routes by the end of next year, according to a spokesperson from the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.
The retrofitting of MRT stations with disabled-friendly features has taken over a decade, while work to make all bus routes accessible to wheelchairs has involved bus interchanges, kerbs and other infrastructure.
In addition, a $40-million Accessibility Fund incentivises the upgrading of private buildings, while Town Councils are upgrading all HDB precincts with barrier-free accessiblity features by next year.
Though it was made mandatory in 1990 for buildings to provide such accessibility, "there remains a large stock of buildings built before 1990 that are not barrier-free", said Mr Chin Chi Leong, the Building and Construction Authority's Commissioner of Buildings. In this, the public sector is taking the lead and about 98 per cent of key Government buildings now have "at least basic barrier-free features", said Mr Chin.
One factor has given vital impetus to the drive to make the island more handicap-accessible: The silver tsunami.
It used to be argued that, as the number of disabled persons was relatively tiny, accessibility features were not cost-effective. In the 1980s, disability advocates like Mr Edmund Wan, a polio survivor, called for special needs to be considered in the MRT system. "The reasons given then were that we are just a minority, we are difficult to handle in an emergency," said the retiree, a committee member of the Handicaps Welfare Association.
The tune has changed, observers note, with one in five persons expected to be aged 65 or older by 2030, and the needs of the elderly overlapping with those of the disabled. The BCA promotes the adoption of Universal Design, giving access for the widest possible range of needs from the elderly to families with prams, persons temporarily handicapped through illness or injury, and even foreigners who don't speak the lingo.
In retrospect, Ms Wong noted: "It's more expensive to retrofit a place that has been built than to put in those features at the start."
TYPECAST AS SUPPLICANTS
Another apparent sign of progress is that the disabled are making inroads into mainstream jobs. Bizlink, a Government-appointed job agency for persons with disabilities, placed more than 600 in jobs in the past three years. In the latest financial year 2009/2010, it put more in mainstream employment than it did in sheltered workshops that employ only disabled persons.
Weekend Today also spoke to teachers, engineers, accountants and professionals who just happened to have physical disabilities.
But there is still a fair way to go for disabled persons to become visible, familiar members of society who aren't pigeonholed as "victims" or helpless.
"Cab drivers are very surprised when they learn that I work and that I can speak English," said Mr Wee. "For the most part, you only see disabled persons in the mass media when they're appealing for donations ... There's that typecasting that happens, inadvertently."
Televised fundraisers like the laudable President's Star Charity raise substantial funds for Singaporeans with disabilities, who in turn often perform on the show, displaying their musical and other admirable talents. Even so, stereotypes of supplication - however inadvertent or well-intentioned - accentuate the status gap between those who give and those who receive.
Meanwhile, local TV has featured the disabled as, for example, among the underprivileged who get home-makers in the Channel 5 docu-reality programme RenovAID. There was also Beyond The Physical, in the lead-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, on the "lesser-known world of disabled sports and athletes through the eyes of their able-bodied counterparts", said Ms Kim Wong-Nathan, VP Network Commissioning, Channel 5.
Channel 8 Mandarin dramas such as Your Hand in Mine, Taste of Love and The Shining Star have featured disabled main characters.
But sometimes raw nerves are touched when TV shows feature disabled persons. When the BBC chose one-armed presenter Cerrie Burnell to co-host a children's show on the CBeebies channel, a handful of parents claimed she scared children - one squeamishly complained she should "pull her sleeve down a bit more". American series Glee also got brickbats - for hiring an able-bodied actor to play the wheelchair-bound Artie.
In general, SPD's Ms Wong said, TV dramas featuring the disabled "often portray a person who is helpless" and in this respect, the media could do more to fight stereotypes.
It could also perhaps help educate the public. Mr Lim Chin Heng, a deaf maths resource teacher in a mainstream school, said he was once asked why he and his friends were using sign language - was it because he had a short tongue and couldn't speak?
Certainly, there is much more that would help the physically disabled be more visible in Singapore life. Accountant May Low, who is deaf, said the small pool of interpreters made it difficult for deaf persons to fully participate in society.
In the assessment of Mr Ron Chandran-Dudley, who is visually handicapped, and has been working on disability issues for close to six decades: "Awareness of the capabilities of disabled persons is increasing".
For his part, Mr Wan hopes that one day, disability will be considered like "race - nothing particularly significant", just part of the fabric of Singapore life.
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