More Services Needed In Thailand For People With Disabilities

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EDITORIAL

More services needed for people with disabilities

By The Nation

NTC's info hotline for people who are blind is just a start; we must do more to help the impaired enjoy better lives

The National Telecommunications Commission recently signed an agreement with the Association of the Blind to provide telephone services tailored to their needs. This is apart from its plan to encourage visually-impaired people to have better access to information through other media, such as computers and the Internet.

NTC efforts to provide people with physical challenges better access to information and resources should be promoted further. In fact, every public institution should consider services to people with disabilities as a priority so that no group is left behind.

People with disabilities - such as the visually and hearing impaired - still have the potential to excel and contribute their skills and resources if society caters to their special needs. The development of modern technology should make it easier to accommodate the needs of people with disabilities than in the past.

For instance, the latest model of software for visually-impaired people will make it easier for them to obtain updated information and live more productively. New hearing devices have helped people with hearing problems function normally and independently in the workplace.

In fact, the number of calls by visually-impaired people using the 1414 NTC information hotline service - around 130,000 per month - shows the high level of the callers' intelligence and curiosity. These people are still eager to obtain information and resources.

While Thailand is enjoying good economic growth with modern infrastructure, the services for people with disabilities have lagged far behind. People with physical, visual or hearing disabilities do not know where to find services to obtain information and resources on how to live independently. This is despite the fact that these people have many things to offer society.

In offering the new telephone services, the NTC said that the organisation aims to promote more access to computers for the blind.

In fact, every public and private institution can take part in providing resources for people with disabilities. For instance, let's start with safety rails in public places or every public library having equipment and facilities that are user-friendly for people with disabilities.

Public places such as schools and government offices should have equipment to accommodate the needs of people with physical challenges. In fact, these people can be mobile and live independently only if society provides them with user-friendly facilities and resources.

The social support for people with disabilities will not only enhance their capacity but also help them overcome the stigma of being seen as incapacitated. Some people with physical challenges feel discouraged to ask for help or fulfil their intelligence and curiosity because they often encounter a lack of disability-friendly equipment in public places or other support that they are entitled to.

Consequently, these people have increasingly lost the confidence to go out and live a full life. This is a shame because people with physical disabilities have the potential to build their capacity and contribute to society.

Every member of society can take part in providing people with physical challenges by being observant to respond to their needs. Everyone can contribute to a positive change in society by, for instance, starting from simply reading to visually-impaired people in the neighbourhood. This will not only help people with disabilities but also improve one's interaction skills and understanding of people with disabilities. Public awareness about people with disabilities must also be raised. This is to ensure that we live in a caring society.

-- The Nation 2010-11-28

[asiawatcher]

Thailand should start the process of elimination of learning disabilities by removing Thai television soap operas educating the populace and condoning bashings rape, anger and abuse. The hearing impaired are fortunate enough not to listen to such garbage but children learn by default. Visually impaired in Thailand against this insult to intelligence are at a great advantage.

[gotlost]

I have personally witnessed 4 BG's assisting an individual in a wheelchair up to the bar and afterwards escorting him home.

[jayjay0]

Thailand should start the process of elimination of learning disabilities by removing Thai television soap operas educating the populace and condoning bashings rape, anger and abuse. The hearing impaired are fortunate enough not to listen to such garbage but children learn by default. Visually impaired in Thailand against this insult to intelligence are at a great advantage.

Are you saying that you want them to stop the soap operas, stop educating people and stop condoning rape and bashing. I really wasn't aware that they condone rape and bashing. I know thy ignore it rather than face it.

As for the soap operas. I can't understand Thai so I don't watch them. Don't know what is wrong with them. Back in North America they have hundreds of channels and very little worth watching. Thailand is the same.

As far as the OP goes they forgot to mention it would be nice for the blind if they would remove the telephone poles and phone box's from the center of the side walk. Also if they have to park on the side walk park the bikes so a person can get by them.

[geriatrickid]

Considering the aging population, simple low cost efforts would achieve dramatic results. Some ramps instead of stairs. Hand rails and non slip surfaces. Accessibility to government services. Even larger lettering on some safety signs would help. Change will come once a few more cabinet ministers have their parents slip and trip breaking hips and other bones.

[thaibeachlovers]

Thailand should start the process of elimination of learning disabilities by removing Thai television soap operas educating the populace and condoning bashings rape, anger and abuse. The hearing impaired are fortunate enough not to listen to such garbage but children learn by default. Visually impaired in Thailand against this insult to intelligence are at a great advantage.

Are you saying that you want them to stop the soap operas, stop educating people and stop condoning rape and bashing. I really wasn't aware that they condone rape and bashing. I know thy ignore it rather than face it.

As for the soap operas. I can't understand Thai so I don't watch them. Don't know what is wrong with them. Back in North America they have hundreds of channels and very little worth watching. Thailand is the same.

As far as the OP goes they forgot to mention it would be nice for the blind if they would remove the telephone poles and phone box's from the center of the side walk. Also if they have to park on the side walk park the bikes so a person can get by them.

Even more to the point would be if they stop putting those "guide" pavers leading the blind directly into pavement hazards! I know they are probably installed by some underpaid person who does not understand their purpose, but is there no supervision, or is it just that no one cares ( rhetorical question, TIT )?

[harrry]

I have personally witnessed 4 BG's assisting an individual in a wheelchair up to the bar and afterwards escorting him home.

The Thai attitude to people with disabilities is great..the facilities are not. It is to the credit of the girls that they help him in and treat him just like anyone else....maybe even treat him a bit better because he has a problem. In the west he would be left outside the bar if it did not have a ramp (though it probably would as the law requires it but to get someone to go home would be much harder).

[harrry]

They could start by removing the barriers they have place across the ramp leading to the library at CMU. THe ramp is great the library can generally be accessed but they must block off the ramp as someone may use it.

[harrry]

I have been carried by four staff members up the stairs at the motor licence branch so that I can renew my licence. I am no lightweight but not one complaint or look making me feel I am a problem. Of course it would be better for all to have a lift or ramp and in most cases these changes could be done cheaply. Still it was like that 20 yearsa ago in the west but there they would not have carried you up the stairs just said it is your problem.

[tim armstrong]

I have personally witnessed 4 BG's assisting an individual in a wheelchair up to the bar and afterwards escorting him home.

The Thai attitude to people with disabilities is great..the facilities are not. It is to the credit of the girls that they help him in and treat him just like anyone else....maybe even treat him a bit better because he has a problem. In the west he would be left outside the bar if it did not have a ramp (though it probably would as the law requires it but to get someone to go home would be much harder).

I'm not so sure about that. I've seen a group of well educated trainee teachers put on a 'comedy' about someone with cerebral palsy as part of a w/e training camp. Most Thais there thought it was funny, while myself and a Peace Corps volunteer sat in disbelief and agreed that it would be a 'sackable' offense in our countries. Thai spiritual beliefs seem to be very fatalistic, and while caring for one's family is a given, I'm not sure how far that extends to the community. Temples and monks seem to have a role here, The idea of making merit is by definition self serving.

[cup-O-coffee]

While Thailand is enjoying good economic growth with modern infrastructure, the services for people with disabilities have lagged far behind. People with physical, visual or hearing disabilities do not know where to find services to obtain information and resources on how to live independently. This is despite the fact that these people have many things to offer society.

Are we talking about Thais with disabilities, or disabled farangs who come here with their bank accounts?

Seriously, when was the last time you saw 4 BG's assisting an THAI man in a wheelchair up to the bar and afterwards escorting him home?

When was the last time you saw four staff members carrying a large THAI man up the stairs at the motor licence branch so that he could renew his license?

When was the last time you saw blind, Thai people out for a stroll on the footpath?

What a joke! This article talks like it really cares about Thai people with disabilities. I experience more to my senses that suggests the contrary. Thais do not care about Thai people with disabilities, and Hell will freeze over before you see anything done to help those poor, suffering bastards at the markets, who writhe on the ground in their own filth and clutch a donation cup in their claw-like hands. Not even the flea and disease-ridden curs go near these "disabled" Thais. Sorry; but that is what I see.

The article describes these impaired people as wanting to "live independently", and describes how "these people have many things to offer society". Well, with all due respect to disabled Thai people, you had better wake up and smell the roses, because this article is not for you. You might have a lot to offer in another life, or possibly in an Equal Opportunity Nation, such as the USA; but C'mon... "Live independently"! That is just plain stupid if you consider that statement and the subsequent infrastructure you would have to design and install for disabled people whom the Thai people view as having bad Karma, and maybe will get it right in the next life, and to not interfere with their "Karmatic" journey.

When you correlate these two stupid statements with the non-disabled competition, the reality begins to settle in, and any semi-intelligent Thai is not going to bend over backwards even in the slightest to assist a less fortunate, disabled native brother or sister. To "offer many things to society". Another stupid, Kum-Ba-Ya comment. How thoughtful. I am tingling all over with the Christmas spirit. Sorry; describe 10 things non-disabled Thais offer to society, and therein lies your competition for these disabled Thais.

Think about the children in the school rooms and how they single out the weak ones, and treat him or her like a baby chick with a red spot on its downy hide. Now think of these kids as grown up adults, and being told to move over and make room for disabled countrymen. yeah right!

I think it is insulting to the dignity of Thai people who are in fact disabled (if they even have a concept of dignity), and discriminated against (if they haven't already accepted being discriminated against), and told where their place is in society (if they aren't behaviorally trained to accept and even wish to be herded around like cattle). I feel it is a disgrace to use them as cannon fodder for this misleading and cleverly disguised article, to make a cause sound "just" when in fact it does not represent disabled Thai people, but the disabled foreigners who come here and get cajoled out of their money.

I suggest that any disabled foreigner place themselves on a budget similar to a disabled Thai man, and then let's see how many BG's want to escort you home, or clear a footpath for you so you do not trip and fall!

If installing more disability aids in Thailand will attract more foreign disabled people, and turn a profit, then Thailand will do it; with a parade and a lot of back-slapping. But doing it for their own disabled people? Bwaaaa haaaa ha ha.