02 October 2013 was Cerebral Palsy Day.
Being in Singapore, we are fortunate that most places are wheelchair friendly. Googled a few blog posts related to Cerebral Palsy and found out that in some countries, it is hard to find wheelchair accessible toilets.
In Singapore, our housing flats (most if not all) are equipped with lifts that stop at every floor. There’re alternative routes (be it slopes or lifts) near staircases – be it housing or shopping malls. There are wheelchair-friendly buses. What else can we ask for, when we live in a country that accepts everyone of us as her own?
But there are still places/amenities within Singapore that are not wheelchair friendly. Abled-bodies like us might not realise it, but these amenities do pose a fair bit of challenges to people who are not as fortunate as us and need to rely on wheelchairs to get around.
For example, non-wheelchair friendly buses. Yes I’m being a bit greedy here, since we do have wheelchair friendly buses. But these buses do not come in frequent intervals. Imagine you have to wait 30 minutes for your bus to arrive, only to realise you can’t board because it isn’t wheelchair friendly.
How nice it will be, if your wheelchair has a retractable board that you can control. Even if the bus isn’t wheelchair friendly, all you need to do is to extend the board and you can now board the bus! Would be nice(r) if it is solar powered!
Ok it’s just an idea. Wishful thinking. But that will definitely change the world (exaggerating but it’s true!) of the people who rely on wheelchairs to move around this island of ours.
Until now, you might be thinking, how on earth is this wheelchair thingy related to the title of the blog post.
If I may, let me explain (in summary) what Cerebral Palsy is.
Cerebral (brain) Palsy (lack of muscle control) is an inclusive term to describe a group of non-progressive disorders occurring in young children in which injury to the brain causes impairment of motor function. The degree of the disabilities ranges from extreme tightness or looseness of the body muscles, improper head, shoulder or hip control to speech impairment. Cerebral Palsy is not curable. This can occur during pregnancy, at birth, or in the early years of the child due to illness or injury to the brain.
– extracted from Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore
So what happened is, Kah Whye, one of the students at CPAS actually came up with this idea of having the retractable board. I thought it is a pretty cool idea that I needed to write a blog post on it.
How can we help? Kah Whye has submitted his idea to the World Cerebral Palsy Day website. Apparently, the most voted idea will be given to inventors who will turn this dream into reality! If you have been agreeing with me that is a cool idea, and most beneficial, cast your vote!
On behalf of Kah Whye, I thank you in advance for your kind help. ^_^
