Disability Issues (1)

I posted a comment on Peter Tan's blog. It is shown below.
I was quite pissed off when in another of Tan's post, someone commented in a demeaning manner saying that, she had the right to use the accessible toilet if she is in an emergency like (believe it or not) bleeding in her undies. Well, my argument is in my comment.
The point of the matter is, okay, please 'shut-up' and just keep quiet about it if you had use the accessible toilet, but don't go about demeaning people, and putting them down. (By equating menstruation problems with chronic arthritis or serious kidney problem.)
It is 'no joke'.
She did not directly put down disabled people, but you can see from the comments how demeaning it is and also other patronising comments there besides hers. (Comments were under the post - Blatant Abuse of Disabled Toilets).

Here was my comment:

If I may add, in the UK, they have to lock up toilets for disabled people as well, especially in high human traffic volume area, like railway stations and shopping complexes. So, they have to find the janitor and get the keys off them.

We need to remind ourselves that the facilities for disabled people are not luxuries, but basic needs. Be it lifts, accessible ramps, refuge areas at fire staircase lobbies, accessible carpark, audio announcements, loop induction aid for hearing, and all sorts of services are designed with the correct sizes and features, so that disabled people can manage like everyone else in an environment that was created to make it difficult for disabled people to conduct their lives meaningfully and with dignity.

I know of wheelchair users who could easily get kidney infections if they delay in using the toilets, or elderly people whose arthritis will act up so badly and painfully if they could not get a seat on the bus immediately.

Everyone should fight for the rights of the disabled people to access all services and goods in this country equally like everyone else.

Remember, it is not the person, but the environment that is disabling, be it physical or social.

"...Over the past 20 years, a competing view known as the social model of disability has come to the fore. In this model, disability is seen more as a social construction than a medical reality. An individual may be impaired by a condition that requires daily living adaptations, but the bulk of his problem - his disability - can be found in the attitudinal and physical barriers erected by society..." http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Disability