Physically Challenged: They are Human Beings too

Not in my country, but here in America. It can be true in Europe and some other countries as well.

Sometimes my country beats all the other nations in my ‘comparisons’, sometimes it just wins, but there are occasions where she undergoes utter failure. The management of persons with disabilities is an example of this. At the place where I live in my country, I’ve never seen anyone on wheelchairs in public places, except in hospitals. No surprise. We never expect them to come out of their dwellings. If someone is challenged by birth, he/she is supposed to spend the entire life inside their home. We don’t expect something different from a person who becomes physically challenged by an accident or some disease. Perhaps in developing countries like mine, wheelchairs are too expensive for a common man to afford. Even if someone can buy it, they can’t move about in public places. There are no handicapped facilities on streets, side ways, buses and buildings in India.

In America, the rights of a handicapped person are protected by law and they get priorities in public places. There are special ramps near the entrance of the buildings so they can wheel inside. The sidewalks on streets are designed so that they can move without any hassles. It is said that this is one of the first universities which provided curb cuts to facilitate persons on wheelchairs. The MTD public buses have an access system for them; if a person on a wheelchair is there to board the bus, the driver can lower the side of the door and a metal platform is projected outward so that the person can move the wheelchair inside. There are facilities at the front of the bus to secure the wheelchair firmly. 

Ramp near the Material Research Lab