Eyeing Equality for People with Disabilities

Visually impaired Suhendar (45) is the "eye" of equality and nondiscrimination for diffabel (persons living with disabilities), who has joined the fight for disability equality and to help people with disabilities.

KOMPAS/MACHRADIN WAHYUDI RITONGA

Suhendar

On Saturday (4/9/2021), Suhendar was busy on his cellphone at the Bale Rame Dome in Soreang, Bandung regency. As he has a vision impairment, he had to bring the phone a few centimeters from his right eye.

Suhendar was born with poor vision. His can still see out of right eye, although not clearly, while he is completely blind in his left eye. However, his condition has not hindered his desire to achieve a life of equality and to help others with disabilities.

Dozens of people with disabilities surrounded him Suhendar and his companions. It was a special day. After a long wait, they had been registered as prospective recipients of Covid-19 vaccines at the Bale Rame.

“I\'m still contacting friends who want to be vaccinated. They say that several tunaksa [people with physical disabilities] are on their way," he said while holding the phone to his ear.

From the phone could be heard the soft voice of the mobile reading assistant as it read out the incoming text message. "They will arrive soon," he said cheerfully.

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It is natural that Suhendar is concerned that his friends will be vaccinated. The reason is because he discovered that people with disabilities had not been given maximum attention. They are still finding it difficult to access the vaccines, despite the fact that people with disabilities are among the priority groups in the government’s Covid-19 response.

“Blind people cannot access [vaccines] on their own because they have to fill out a form. It is also difficult for deaf people, because the announcements at vaccination centers generally use,” said Suhendar.

After waiting long, their vaccination invitations had arrived. The West Java provincial administration had asked the Padjadjaran University Alumni Family Association (IKA Unpad) to provide Covid-19 vaccinations for people with disabilities.

As the head of the IKA Unpad Disability Center, Suhendar developed communication with people with disabilities who wanted to be vaccinated. His persistence paid off. The vaccination program at the Bale Rame Dome offered 550 doses for people with disabilities living in Greater Bandung, West Java.

“Limited access and information not only left them ignorant, but also highly vulnerable to vaccine hoaxes. This is something that must be realized together. If our friends with disabilities do not know, it is difficult to invite them to be vaccinated,” he said.

KOMPAS/MACHRADIN WAHYUDI RITONGA

Suhendar

See the difference

Being born with a disability, Suhendar has been on the receiving end of unequal and discriminatory treatment. He was the target of all kinds of ridicule, but over time, they became his motivation and encouragement.

“Being bullied has been common since I was a child. If those who teased [me] were the same age or older, I usually ignored them. But if they were younger, I usually got angry,” he said with a laugh.

The bullying began to lessen in junior high school. The mocking began to subside. But he was still treated differently by those around him. Suhendar, who was then starting to understand his limitations, became determined to prove that he was equal.

“I realized that my friends looked at me with pity because I was visually impaired. Well, what can I do? It is from God, you can\'t protest. So I wanted to prove that I could be like them with this condition,” he said.

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Relying on his hearing and making a greater effort to read, Suhendar became one of the brightest students. He was always reading, even if he had to hold the book very close to his eyes. The young Suhendar often achieved above-average grades, and even topped his class.

However, he was again treated differently when he entered senior high school. One of the teachers even suggested Suhendar to continue his education at the Wyata Guna Social Rehabilitation Center for People with Sensory Disabilities (BRSPDSN). It was thought he would find it difficult to follow the lessons at a public school.

“In the end, I just followed the teacher\'s suggestion and enrolled at Wyata Guna in 1993. For one year, I learned Braille with other friends. That\'s when I realized that many people with disabilities were receiving the same treatment. We are considered unequal to other [people]," he said.

Even though he was a student at Wyata Guna, Suhendar retained a strong desire to obtain equal education as a member of the public. After his first year learning Braille, he enrolled at Kartika Chandra senior high school in 1994.

“High school kids are usually more open-minded, so they didn’t really care about my condition. But still, there was some subjective [thinking] that I couldn’t do anything. I\'m trying to get rid of that stigma by continuing to be active," he said.

I know that in a democracy, the voice of the majority is heard, but that doesn\'t mean that we as a minority don\'t have a voice.

His desire to break the stereotype emerged when Suhendar graduated senior high. He saw that most of his peers at Wyata Guna wanted to continue their studies in a teacher training program, but he wanted to pursue law and was admitted to the Unpad Faculty of Law in 1997.

“I was also interested in pursuing law because I wanted to know why so few legal products existed to support persons with disabilities. I also admired the figure of Pak Todung Mulya Lubis, who was often the voice of the struggle for human rights during the New Order era,” he said.

At one lecture, Suhendar found his answer. Legal products rarely touched on the disabled because they were a minority group. As such, a loud voice was needed to stand up for them.

“I know that in a democracy, the voice of the majority is heard, but that doesn\'t mean that we as a minority don\'t have a voice. Even though it might be small, we can still make noise. To be heard or not, that is a matter of hindsight. The important thing is to try first, that\'s what I think," he said.

KOMPAS/RONY ARIYANTO NUGROHO

Medan Orientation Learning - A number of students with visual impairments at Panti Bina Netra Wyataguna participate in the practice of learning terrain orientation by waiting for a vehicle to stop to give way when crossing Jalan Cihampelas, Bandung, West Java, Wednesday (25/3/2015).

Suhendar was also active in off-campus organizations. Bringing the message of equality, he voiced the interests of the disabled. On occasion, he took his peers to observe the condition of people with disabilities to raise their awareness.

His critical voice did not fade when he finished university in 2002, nor after he was accepted as a state civil servant in 2007. He advocated for his colleagues with disabilities and held several campaigns so their voices could gain the government’s notice.

A number of these efforts paid off. Suhendar and his colleagues succeeded in pushing for the issuance of West Java Bylaw No. 10/2006 for the Protection of Persons with Disabilities. The provincial government also began to show concern for disabled-friendly access to public facilities.

In 2018, Suhendar again proved himself an equal of non-disabled people by becoming a member on the committee for selecting the commissioners of the Bandung municipality, Bogor regency and Bogor municipality General Elections Commission.

“During the inauguration, the officers did not believe that I was one of the candidates who had passed the selection [process]. After finding out [I was], they apologized and I understand that. Maybe no one thought a blind person had passed the [process],” he said.

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> Guaranteeing Rights of Disabled Persons

All stages of the selection were carried out without any significant obstacles. During his time on the selection committee, Suhendar was able to properly select the commissioner candidates to the end of the process. He used various smartphone applications while performing his duties to raise the awareness of his colleagues.

"I really wanted to be part of the selection committee [so I could] try to eliminate discrimination against persons with disabilities during the general elections," he said.

In addition to advocacy, Suhendar also looked for other ways to bring the community closer to people with disabilities. He built an online news portal called News Difabel (www.newsdifabel.com) in 2019.

The portal provides information on various disability issues and topics. The articles criticize discriminatory policies and other forms of inequality, and also cover the empowerment and lives of persons with disabilities.

The News Difabel editorial team is staffed entirely with diverse persons with disabilities, including vision impairment, hearing impairment and physical disabilities. Suhendar says the news portal aims to prove that persons with disabilities can work with their limitations.

Through these and other various ways, Suhendar has raised the issues of equality and the rights of persons with disabilities.

Suhendar

Born: Bandung, 21 June 1976

Education: Faculty of Law, Padjadjaran University

Activity: Chairman, Unpad Alumni Disability Center (2020-present)

This article was translated by Kurniawan Siswoko.