Women's Ministry to curb abuse of facilities for disabled

The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development is intensifying collaboration with Prasarana Malaysia Bhd to address issues such as the abuse of elevators, parking lots and toilets reserved for Persons with Disabilities (OKU).

Deputy Women’s Minister Hannah Yeoh said a dialogue session held with the OKU representatives on Tuesday showed these three issues to be among the major problems of the disabled community.

"Following the dialogue session, the ministry had a meeting with Prasarana to discuss how to handle these issues because they are rampant.

"Besides sterner action taken by Prasarana against abuse of these facilities for the disabled, the ministry has also urged the local authorities to be more strict in monitoring the safety of these public facilities,” Yeoh told a media conference after the meeting yesterday.

She also encouraged more OKUs to register with the Persons with Disabilities Development Department to obtain a special card that carries a lot of benefits for them.

"Benefits include a 50 percent discount on ticket prices for public transportation, especially those managed by Prasarana.

She said up to April 2019, some 540,986 OKU cards has been issued by the ministry, with persons with physical disabilities charting the highest number at 37 percent, those with learning difficulties (33 percent) and the visually impaired (eight percent)

Prasarana president and CEO Mohamed Hazlan Mohamed Hussain said the company would work together with the ministry to organise a special course called Disability Equality Training (DET) and Disability-Related Service Training (DRST).

This will be carried out in July and August to train Prasarana staff to understand the needs of the disabled, especially in the use of public transportation.

- Bernama