Discrimination on Accessing Public Facilities for People with Disabilities

People with disabilities are people who have different abilities with others people, around them, and are classified in some disabilities like blind, deaf, speech impaired, mentally disorder, and autism. The assumption that people with disabilities are a minority and“not-useful human" that will only "create trouble", so that their basic rights are ignored by most people. Society's point of view on people with disabilities leads to discrimination against them and create some differences of treatment for people with disabilities in public facilities. As we know, there are not so many places have good accessibility for persons with disabilities. Find disable – friendly public places is “still” not easy in Indonesia. In practice, through the disability law (Indonesian Law no. 11th in 2011 based on the protection of rights and equality in all spheres of life, including law, politics, education, and accessibility), the government has sought to elevate the rights of persons with disabilities, especially in the accessibility.

The government, in the Minister of Public Works, has explained the technical guidelines and facility accessibility in buildings and environments. In fact, the government has tried to fulfill some facilities and accessibility principles, such as safety, convenience, usability, and independence where every public facility must be safe, useful, and easily accessed by all people even without the help of others. All public facilities ranging from toilets, sinks, phones, signs and road markings have been arranged in such a way to meet the needs of people with disabilities. Based on the data owned by the writer, some places in Jakarta has had access for persons with disabilities, such as the elevator buttons in most buildings that have been adjusted in height by persons with disabilities, especially disabled who use wheelchairs. In addition, the busway station has also tried to implement the same for wheelchair users by making the narrow path. There are some places that have met the standards of accessibility, such as Central Park, JS Luwansa Hotel Kuningan, and Grand Indonesia.

But writer also often found a public toilet which is made with a mini form. Practical impressed indeed, because it is only a small cubicle that does not require a lot of places. However, the construction of "mini" public toilets certainly violated ministerial rules stating that all public facilities must be accessible to everyone as well by the fact that persons with disabilities - especially wheelchair users who need more space to fit into the toilet. In addition, writer found many automatic teller machines (ATM) that have not been in accordance with accessibility standards. ATM, public telephones, and other facilities should be accessible to everyone. But in fact, blind people sometimes cannot access the ATM well because there is no Braille in any ATM machine buttons. Besides ATM machine, writer also found a lot of places that have no road markings that have good accessibility for people with disabilities. In addition to pedestrian paths, street signs located on the road is also not meet accessibility standards. In a ministerial regulation, stated that each braille signs must be printed to facilitate blind and other persons with disabilities to understand. But in fact, the regulation which is also contained in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities cannot be implemented properly in all the main places in Jakarta.

Government concern about the disability itself is already pretty good by looking at some laws which have been created to protect the rights of persons with disabilities, such as the Law. 4 of 1997 and Government Regulation no. 43 of 1998, but the implementations of these rules are not going well because of the discrimination. Take a look at R’s experience. R is a blind person who was going to travel from Jakarta to Denpasar by plane. Shortly before the flight, R who were not accompanied by a guardian were asked to sign a waiver stating that R is a passenger who was ill and did not bring a doctor's note. In addition, it also written that the airline cannot held any responsibility if anything happened to passengers who signed the statement. Moreover, it also written that person who signed the waiver has to compensate when there is an error or accident on the flight. From the example above, it is clear that there is discrimination against persons with disabilities. Although the government has made various regulations, but implementation of these regulations is “still” a major problem. The absence of a clear and legal sanction for the owner of public facilities asset is not running smoothly. Based on the Indonesian Association of People with Disabilities (PPCI), less than five percent of public facilities in Jakarta has good access for people with disabilities.

From what writer wrote above, in fact there is discrimination against persons with disabilities in aspects of public facilities. This happens due to the lack of public awareness about the basic rights of every human being as a creature of God that causes the rights of persons with disabilities is neglected. The rights are neglected due to discrimination where persons with disabilities are classified in small groups that are not considered. Regulation made by the government about the accessibility of public facilities is a good thing, but it will be nothing if it does not applied well.