A lot of talk has been going on recently about the need to care for the handicapped and to assist people with special needs. We have read and heard of programs and projects that have been planned or suggested to help these individuals overcome the hardships they encounter in their daily lives. Charities have been named for them and donations made in their names; conferences, conventions and seminars devoted to helping them are held with startling frequency. Recommendations and resolutions are made and issued with their needs in mind.
All this is good but does it really reflect an accurate picture or the reality these individuals face? The answer coming from someone who belongs to this group is a big NO. I am a handicapped person and this is what I have to say.
• When I drive to the Grand Mosque in Makkah to pray there, the first problem I encounter is parking. The moment I stop my car, a traffic policeman comes out and orders me to leave the place, completely ignoring my pleas, the fact that I am handicapped and carry an official document requesting the police to help me. I can’t use public transportation because buses have no facilities for people like me.
• I suffer when I go to the rehabilitation center to change an artificial limb. The center refuses to help me unless I am transferred to them by a health authority. This means that I have to shuttle from one place to another in order to obtain permission to be able to repair or change a limb.
• If I want to have a picnic outside the city, what happens to me is beyond description. There are no toilets for handicapped people along the roads. What can be done? The answer is simple: Stay home and don’t venture out unless in the most extreme circumstances. That is surely one solution but is it the most humane, the most thoughtful or even the most Islamic way of dealing with the problem? Is it really that difficult to provide some simple services for the handicapped on our highways and in mosques, markets, public places and other areas where the handicapped and the old could enjoy life just like others?
• Even when it comes to education, we are not treated as individuals with special needs. When I went to college one day to take an examination, there was no vacant seat on the first floor and I was told to climb the stairs to the second. When I asked for a wheelchair, my request was ignored and I had to pull myself up the stairs so as not to miss my exam.
• Treatment at the airport is no different. The handicapped are searched in a special room and in a rough manner that reflects extreme suspicion on the part of the airport staff. If you ask them why a handicapped person is treated this way, the answer is that they are following instructions.
Keep in mind that I am handicapped and I have written this based on my own personal experience.
