By nature, human beings belong as one community but by human nature, humans tend to classify ourselves, either by excluding a group of people or by associating themselves with a particular group of people.
Discrimination
As much as how saddening the plight of the wheelchair-bound may be, there is, unfortunately, still the minority of rotten apples who choose to be blatantly offensive and hurtful towards these people. These people would regard the wheelchair-bound as outcasts and leeches of society that do not contribute to civil society but instead bank on taxpayers’ money to survive. This is perhaps one of the greatest form of bigotry and insensitivity. Less outright discrimination could be “justified” by the fact that it is the individual’s own fault that resulted in their current state of immobility and thus should compromise on their own lifestyle and should not rely on the society to compensate them in anyway. Another common yet unspoken reason as to why most people would discriminate against the wheelchair-bound would be the unsightliness (or the euphemism for what is commonly deemed as ‘ugly’) that is commonly associated with these people. Since certain diseases might also affect the physical appearance of the wheelchair-bound, some people might be invoked to feel a slight detest in terms of physical appeal.
The problem of discrimination can also be a national problem and greatly affected by the culture of that country. One of these examples would be Ghana, west of Africa, where 10 percent of the people are disabled (out of 20 million people). Over there, the disabled are literally excluded from the society; such that many choose to poison their deformed child or leave him in the forest to die (give that a thought). In fact, parents of deformed children are encouraged to kill their son. Some religious sects believed the disabled were possessed by demons and should be exorcised. It is a society where human rights for the disabled are non-existent. Sadly, it is their culture to do so. The disabled are jobless, poor, hungry and most often those who are begging on the streets. Insults are often rained on them for being around, disrupting people’s lives and dirtying the country’s image. In a nutshell, Ghanaians treat the disabled like litter – Rubbish that awaits clearing.
Fortunately, the situation in Ghana is en route to change for the better. A disabled man, Emmanuel was determined to fight for the rights for the disabled and he has widely succeeded in doing so. A case study on Ghana and Emmanuel is available under the case studies section.
Lack of Understanding
The current attitude of most people towards the wheelchair-bound can be adequately summed up in two words – apathetic and ignorant. In terms of ignorance, it would explain that most people do not know and hence are not able to help in any way.
Although this might not be totally relevant towards a highly informative and progressive society of today, most people would be ignorant towards the specific situations and plights of the wheelchair-bound individuals. Having stereotypes and misconceptions could also contribute towards this ignorance at hand, especially when one has minimal contact with the wheelchair-bound.
On the other hand, apathy would be about those people who know of these plights but yet choose not to care and hence evade this issue. The excuse that most would come out with would be the lack of time and fear of doing more good than harm or even just out of a sheer care-free attitude. In this case, the lack of understanding in view is no longer on the understanding of the situation but rather the fact that their refusal to help would indirectly affect them somehow; bearing in mind Chief Seattle’s quote – "We did not weave the web of life. We are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves".
Moving on to countries like Singapore, where it is economically a first world country but yet lagging socially, things fall into the grey area. In general, Singaporeans do not discriminate the disabled, but they are also not sensitive to the needs and feelings of the disabled, the wheelchair bound. Perhaps it is the pace of society which moulds us into self-centered individuals who would naturally take care of our own conveniences before attending to others. Singaporeans are always on the run. We commute from one place to another as quickly as we can and often do not stop in our tracks to attend to another person’s needs, be it a surveyor or someone on wheelchair. Of course there are exceptions, but in general, the picture is painted like this.
According to our interviewee, Ms Sherena Loh, a wheelchair bound herself, from the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Singapore, she feels that Singaporeans are more kind now, compared to those of the past decades. “Those were the days when people stared at me when I went out,” as quoted from our interview with her. “It is okay to look, but staring hurts.” On top of that, people like to question the wheelchair bound of their condition, physical and financial, out of curiousity and kindness. However, they often do not know how to probe tactfully. Such things result in the person in wheelchair feeling annoyed or hurt.
Over sympathy
For most people would choose to adamantly argue against the fact that they do not belong to the above categories of people, they would probably concede to this category – people who over-sympathize the wheelchair-bound individuals. Very often, people choose to help out of pity and out of the thought that the wheelchair bound is underprivileged. Although these people do mean no ill-intentions and usually just want to play a part in helping, their methods of doing so may be implying that they subtly underestimate these people, perceiving them as helpless and powerless people. Therefore, these wheelchair-bound individuals are often segregated ironically because of the over-reacting and over-sympathy on the ordinary people’s part and making the wheelchair-bound feel inferior.
However, we must note that they are NOT underprivileged other than the fact that they cannot walk. That itself is a stereotype and a problem of the current society. There is not enough understanding for the wheelchair bound. One example can be a person taking the initiative to push a backward riding wheelchair up the slope when in fact the person on wheelchair was trying to reverse his way down the slope. As much as how essential it is to try our best to help the people in need, especially for this case, the wheelchair-bound, we must also be sharp and evaluate the situation with discretion. It is best to first nicely ask the individual if he/she may require so help and not assume the situation like the earlier illustration.