Acting Head of the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center Imam Margono with Director of the Center for Human Rights Studies of UIII Eko Riyadi opening a training for services to persons with disabilities at the Constitutional Court's Pancasila and Constitution Education Center, Wednesday (5/11/2022). Photo by Humas MK/Bayu.

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Wednesday, May 11, 2022 | 20:41 WIB

BOGOR, Public Relations—A disability awareness training for skilled and responsive services was held by the Constitutional Court (MK) at the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center in Bogor on Wednesday, May 11, 2022.

The Acting Head of the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center Imam Margono in his keynote speech said that persons with disabilities in Indonesia had needs and aspirations that must be fulfilled collectively. Their challenges did not reduce their rights.

He also said that currently, negative stigma and discrimination posed real challenges to persons with disabilities. Thus, access and opportunities for persons with disabilities must be expanded as they needed a supportive and inclusive social ecosystem, not a discriminating one.

To that end, the center had made efforts to provide persons with disabilities with facilities. “Various facilities will be provided, such as disability-only lanes, ramps from bedrooms to study rooms, disability-only elevators, disability-only rooms and bathrooms, and handicapped parking,” Imam explained.

The center was also aware of the need for not only facilities and infrastructure, but also skillful human resources to provide services to persons with disabilities.

Human Rights for Persons with Disabilities

The Director of the Center for Human Rights Studies of the Islamic University of Indonesia (UIII) Eko Riyadi delivered the first presentation on human rights. he explained that in order to protect, respect, promote, and fulfill the rights of persons with disabilities. The Government has established various laws and regulations governing the protection of persons with disabilities, including Law No. 19 of 2011 on the Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), Law No. 8 of 2016 on Persons with Disabilities, and Government Regulation No. 39 of 2020 on Adequate Accommodation for Persons with Disabilities in Judicial Processes.

Currently, he added, all state institutions had been transforming services for persons with disabilities, including the judiciary. “Judicial institutions, prosecution offices, and the police are improving services and infrastructure so that persons with disabilities can access all available services,” he said.

This transformation is a legal obligation that all judicial institutions must fulfilled. However, it places more value on respecting human dignity.

Challenges Faced by Persons with Disabilities

Meanwhile, M. Syafi’ie, a law lecturer at UII, delivered a presentation on “Studies on Disability: Theory, Variety, and Challenges.” He explained that persons with disabilities are anyone who experience physical, intellectual, mental, and/or sensory limitations in the long term, who in interacting with the environment may experience obstacles and difficulties to participate fully and effectively with other citizens based on equal rights.

Disability is interpreted as the existence of obstacles and difficulties in participating. This implies that the state has an obligation to remove these barriers and difficulties so that persons with disabilities can fully participate in society along with other citizens.

Persons with Visual Impairment

The last speaker on the first day of the training was Mimi Lusli, a person with sensory disability. She delivered “An Introduction to Visual Impairment.” She explained that sensory disability included a disability related to vision. “So, I or those [suffering from impairment such as myself] rely on [our] sense of hearing, touch, and smell optimally in interacting,” she stressed.

The visually impaired, she added, usually brings a mobility cane to aid them in walking about and interact more with touch and sounds. Therefore, their interaction is usually done through greeting and touching.

“How to greet or get acquainted with the visually impaired can be done through 3S, namely salam, sapa sentuh [(greeting, greeting, and touching)]. If you want to help [a visually impaired person], ask first whether they need help or not. If you want to lead them, you don’t need to hold their hand. Instead, let them hold [your] hand,” she explained.

Writer        : Bayu Wicaksono
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 5/12/2022 10:12 WIB

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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