A dear friend of mine has a disability that often requires that she use a wheelchair to get around. Although she can walk, traveling long distances can be difficult and assistance, especially when flying, is necessary.
My friend recently told me of her experience traveling via Emirates Airlines to Paris for medical treatment. She traveled with her 19-year-old niece, but she needed a wheelchair for virtually the entire trip. Much to her surprise she found the experience pleasant, if not relaxing, with Emirates going out of its way to ensure that she was comfortable.
On every leg of the trip a courteous well-groomed and clean young man or woman was available to push her from the plane to the lounge. Although she was not traveling first or business class, she was given first-class treatment in the lounge. Instead of requiring her to use the boarding tunnel from the departure gate to the airplane, she was lifted in a special elevator directly to the plane.
In Paris, airport personnel delivered her to a van equipped for special needs passengers. During her entire stay in Paris she noted that every parking lot had parking spaces for the disabled and every building had special ramps, wide automatic doors and even, in some cases, building employees to guide her to the right office. To my friend’s surprise, she was given free entrance to museums and entertainment parks.
None of this was a revelation to her, or to me. At some level, we are aware that many countries and private companies work hard to make sure that individuals with special needs are given equal access and services as any person without a disability. When I lived in England, I took it for granted the highly visible disabled parking spaces and ramps leading to every public and private building in town, although it was not a service that I required.
But it’s another thing to experience it. And this experience drives the point home that although Saudi Arabia is a wealthy nation with a long history of providing social services to its citizen, it offers virtually no helping hand to the disabled to navigate parking lots and public buildings. Nor are the disabled given a level of service in transportation or at airports on a par with other countries.
In fact, it makes one acutely aware just how negligent our society is in providing access to the disabled. Our streets in Jeddah, even though they have been improved and widened over the past few years, provide little or no pedestrian-friendly access and much less access for the disabled. There are few ramps leading to major retail stores on Tahlia Street, and those that are equipped with ramps are in disrepair or blocked by vehicles.
Parking in any Jeddah’s commercial district is a nightmare, and it’s worse for the disabled since there are few, if any, disabled parking slots.
The measure of a civilized society is what steps it takes to protect its citizens and how it treats its people who are less fortunate. We live in a society that places little importance in observing traffic laws and common courtesy while driving. We live in a society that has spent little time or money to ensure that people with special needs can navigate through the town or city they live in. It says much about us as Saudis.
