SLOW TO RISE
Following a delay for installing lifts at the BTS, we follow a wheelchair- bound woman as she attempts to commute in Bangkok
At around 11am, you’d think the BTS and MRT would have emptied out from the rush hour’s crowd of commuters, making way for a fast and easy ride to work. Still, it takes Nalutporn Krairiksh over an hourand- a-half, using public transportation, to travel from her house in Ekamai to her office in Huai Kwang.
Nalutporn, 24, suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which causes her muscles to weaken.
As a result, she uses an electric wheelchair at all times — a situation that doesn’t fit well with Bangkok’s public facilities that are negligent of people with disabilities.
As a journalist for the Prachatai news website, Nalutporn recently covered a session at the Civil Court in January, which saw a group of disabled people like herself, fed up with the lack of lifts in most BTS stations, petition the court. They demanded that municipal authorities take immediate action.
To this day, 18 years into service with nearly 800,000 passengers a day at 26 stations, only four BTS stations have functioning lifts — and those were launched just earlier this month. A Supreme Administrative Court ruling last year, ordering City Hall to add more facilities, did little to solve the problem.
City Hall promised that by September, lifts from ground to platform would be installed in five stations, and from ground to ticket-machine level in 12 stations.
As a wheelchair user, Nalutporn welcomed the opening of new lifts at four stations earlier this month. But there is a lot more that needs to be done to assist the disabled in their daily lives, she says.
Notwithstanding their flaws, the BTS and MRT are currently the only public modes of transportation people in wheelchairs can use in Bangkok. Public buses are obviously out of the question.
“The pavement is impracticable, if not non-existent. Taxis don’t want to take us and buses are off-limits.”
At the policy level, Thailand’s set of laws and regulations regarding the disabled — including the 2007 Persons with Disabilities Empowerment Act — do not fall short of international standards, Nalutporn argues. However, proper enforcement of these rules is an uphill battle.
As far as she knows, facilities for people with disabilities are hardly inspected and sanctions seldom handed out when they do not fit official requirements. And there are not only wheelchair users among people with disabilities. The blind and the deaf also need appropriate equipment for crossing streets or walking on the city’s uneven pavements, she adds.
We meet her at Ekamai station, under a scorching Sun. Since the lift — under construction since mid-2015 — is not yet completed, Nalutporn must access the station through an adjacent mall, which provides a passageway that brings customers directly to the concourse level.
Of course, we could have set out from Nalutporn’s house, l ocated around 1km away from the main road. But the pavement of her soi — narrow, wobbly, occupied by trees, pebbles and roadwork — makes manoeuvring the wheelchair difficult.
Due to the nature of her work, Nalutporn must move around the city constantly. However, this requires a great deal of planning, as she needs to enquire whether a location has a ramp or lift before going there. If a building is not accessible to her, then she must pass the assignment on to her colleagues.
Going out and about is the same, she says. Whether she wants to go to museums, malls or restaurants, she needs to check in advance whether she can reach the place.
More often than not, lifts are located in remote, hidden corners of buildings and parking lots. At night-time, it can get scary, she adds, especially when security guards take time to arrive and open the lift for her.
“I don’t understand why lifts have to be locked and why I’m not allowed to use them on my own.”
That morning in Ekamai, instead of pushing on a single button to call the elevator, Nalutporn saw herself hoisted by four security guards. The guards rode the escalator up with her, firmly holding her wheelchair’s back to prevent her from falling.
It was an uneasy sight, but Nalutporn made no comment and briefly told the BTS employees her destination. They would need to alert security guards from the Asok station to prepare the lift for her and help her down to street level.
Switching to the MRT is no joke either, and we get stuck outside the station, waiting for the lift for a longer time — between five and 10 minutes, although Nalutporn says she once had to wait half-an-hour.
Lifts must be unlocked and power turned back on whenever someone wants to use them, a female security guard tells us. The rest of the time, they pull the plug out.
“Isn’t that just a waste of everyone’s time and human resources?” Nalutporn asks, when, each time someone in a wheelchair needs to take the MRT, a station employee must vacate their position to come unbolt the lift for them instead.
The way these facilities are built and operated means that people with disabilities must always rely on others to get around.
“Society still views disabled people as people who need assistance and help,” she argues.
Whenever new facilities are built for people with disabilities, public officials congratulate themselves for being inclusive and thinking about others’ needs.
“They believe that, this way, we can take public transportation. But they don’t even think about letting us live autonomously.” Their entire mindset needs to change before there is any progress in this direction, she says.
It’s not just with public facilities — at a recent outing in Khao San road with friends, Nalutporn says she was refused entry into a pub. The security guard let her know that allowing a wheelchair in was potentially dangerous for her and other customers. He told her to come back once she “recovered”.
People still see disabilities as illnesses, Nalutporn argues. At school and university, teachers treated her more gently, with more compassion than her friends.
They see disabled people as sickly and weak, she adds. “Like eternal children, we are thought to be pure, innocent and not capable of doing anything wrong.”
Meanwhile, at the Asok MRT station, the lifts are troublesome. They only travel one floor each, meaning Nalutporn must take three different lifts to reach the platform level.
The three lifts are also located in different spots on each floor, turning her commute into a treasure hunt every time.
Once we reach Huai Kwang, Nalutporn must take an elaborate detour to exit the station and head to her office.
Just as she is about to take a right turn into her soi, an S-shaped barrier — installed by City Hall to prevent motorcycles from driving on the pavement — blocks her way. Instead, she backtracks and passes through the parking lot, bending her head to avoid hitting the barrier gate.
Nalutporn learned the hard way that it takes a lot of trying and re-routing before she can successfully travel from one spot to another.
“It’s this vicious circle, where the roads and public facilities are difficult for disabled people to use, so they stay in. And when they are not visible, their needs and rights are forgotten by others.”
The pavement is impracticable, if not non-existent. Taxis don’t want to take us, and buses are off-limits