M, MJ, TC and I went to do our recce today for the coming HFC Camp in December. We decided to name it "The North-East Challenge by TM and HFC" and we went up and down the NE line today. Learnt a few interesting things about each unique MRT station and took some pictures as well.
H : How many stops till we get off next?
MJ : One....
All (moaning & groaning): wah lau....
Verdict : Age is catching up on us!! We were so tired after all the walking around.
OK I'll cut the chase and get straight to the most important thing I want to blog about for today. I want to comment on the disable-friendly facilities provided in this country. Despite all the effort made by SMRT to provide lifts, ramps and handicap-friendly toilets, the provision of such facilities are still far from friendly. True, handicap or elderly Singaporeans can now take the MRT to any part of Singapore that they want, but take a REAL walk through these MRT stations using the paths for this minority group and you will realise that they aren't all that friendly. I'm speaking mainly for those who require wheelchairs for mobility.
(I strongly feel that handicap-friendly facilities must address the needs of the wheelchair-users, or we might as well not provide anything as all other forms of handicap are mobile, right?)
Take for example, there was a notice at the lift at Chinatown station. (This is the lift that serves the MRT B1, street level L1 and garden bridge level L2.) The notice said that the lift is only operational between 3pm and 11pm everyday. Should anyone need to use the lift, they can approach the station control master for assistance.
So WTF....where is this station control master? Underground of course! So if you were a wheelchair user on L1 or L2, you would have to get a cab home. If you had just taken the train and wanted to exit at Chinatown, you would have wheeled yourself a real long way only to realise that there was no way you could get out of the station and you would have to back track all the way down to speak to the station control master so that he could activate the lift for you. What a waste of time. Wheelchair users already spend more time travelling. Such inconveniences that are conveniently overlooked will just delay them even more. Doesn't make sense does it? I cannot fathom any possible reason for the strange operating hours of the lift, except to think that it's a cost-saving or labour-saving move.
A wheelchair user could take the MRT to any station in Singapore now. But that's about it. The areas surrounding the MRT stations are still by and large extremely handicap unfriendly. the general population is by and large extremely handicap unfriendly too. We belong to such a fast-paced society that people would be irritated if they were delayed by a slower handicap commuter.
Oh take another example. We walked all the way from Chinatown MRT station towards the direction of Clarke Quay station. We were interested to focus on the Speakers Corner as one of the areas that the campers could visit. The Thong Chai Medical institution was also an excellent spot as it is a national monument and there is so much to learn as the kids go along this stretch. So we happily planned our questions, tasks and instructions based on these 2 locations. Then we crossed the road and went into Clarke Quay station. Our job was not done yet. We had to look for the lifts in the station so that we could get an idea of how much walking time we need to give the kids and which station exit did the lift serve (YES, the lifts only serve one of the many possible station exits). So we took the lift up and walked out of the station. We found ourselves far from Speaker's Corner and the medical institution. We were basically at a station exit that was in the middle of almost nowhere. We had to craft a new set of tasks and questions based on "almost nowhere" and had to settle for a less educational and historical visit at this MRT station. Darn. I can understand why lifts are not provided at every single exit for the MRT station, but I cannot understand why the lifts serve the oddest exits of all. The quietest and less-crowded exits, I presume.
I rest my case.
At some stations, the distance between the exit points and the lifts is SO FAR that it's almost like a torture to ask the kids and volunteers to go on this journey. I mean, even WE were tired of walking!
H : eh like that how? Kids like Mubarak would be able to walk this far, but I think anyone with more severe handicap from Nizam or Gopinath onwards would be in trouble.
MJ : Yeah I agree.
M : The volunteers pushing those on ordinary wheelchairs will also die man.
All : yah...
MJ : We need to give them breaks!
H : yeah...we must have some way to insist that they take a break to eat and etc.
Nevertheless, we feel accomplished today. We managed to finish going through what we wanted to do and we are going to meet up again next Sat or Sun to run through the preparations. Phew!
PS : Pampered myself with a pedicure after the recce just now. I enjoy doing girly stuffs.
1 comment:
Sian right? Despite all the talk about integrating handicapped into our society, the government are still looking away at these kind of problems. It so atypical of the people at the top to think that they have done a good job, gave themselves a pat on the backs and yet failed to even comprehend what kind of 'help' that they had provided.
Post a Comment