Published on Dec 31, 2005

Mobility is still difficult for disabled people in Bangkok because they remain “second-and-a-half-class citizens,” says Kampol Tewphophumi, who depends on a wheelchair to get around.

The 40-year-old Kampol insists that unless the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) and owners of private buildings join forces to provide further facilities for the disabled, people like him will continue to be at a grave disadvantage.

“We too are members of this society and want to live like the able-bodied,” he stressed. “I want to call on the BMA and building owners to provide us with enough facilities.”

Kampol added that it might take another 10 years for a heightened awareness in society of the needs of disabled people to have enough effect in bringing adequate improvements.

At present, he said, the special needs of the physically impaired remained largely ignored, and so most of them are relegated to the status of “second-and-a-half-class citizens”.

Existing facilities are not suitable for use by the disabled, whereas a recently passed law restricts the owners of only new buildings to install adequate facilities for the disabled, he added.

He recalls how he and 14 other people in wheelchairs were invited to try out facilities provided by the Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS) between On Nut and Siam stations when the Skytrain began operations six years ago.

“For a start, the parking lots reserved for disabled people could not be accessed,” he said. “It was also very difficult for us to reach the station’s elevator because the ramp was too steep for children and those people who did not have the strength or skills to manoeuvre their wheelchairs. Many almost fell to the ground.”

He added that out of the 24 Skytrain stations, only five had elevators for use by the disabled.

“BTS has selected only a few stations for disabled people to use with no intention of letting us use their services [elsewhere],” Kampol said. “The few lifts they have installed are there just for show, I think. If they were sincere [in trying to help the disabled], they would have installed facilities for us at all the stations.”

Public buses provide even worse impediments for the physically impaired, he added. “Using buses is extremely difficult and inconvenient for people like me.”

Recently he has switched to a car personally modified for his needs and so can now move around the city with relative ease, Kampol said.

Saowalak Thongkuay, 39, the secretary-general of an association for people in wheelchairs, said members of his group had alerted the management at BTS of a dearth of facilities for the disabled but had so far received no reply.

The Nation