Musings: Accessibility of public transport in Malaysia

Dang Wangi LRT station has two entrances, but only one of them has a 2-way escalator and an elevator, while the other only has an escalator that goes down, to the underground track. Both entrances have stairs but they're not just steep but also a long way down/up.

Every workday, I have to use a bridge with stairs to/from this station, because there's a river between that station and my workplace. I have to use the 2nd entrance because it's closest to me.

As I was walking back from work today, an old Malay pakcik was struggling to walk down the stairs for this bridge. When I asked if he needed assistance, he didn't say anything, just looked down. I asked again, but he didn't move, so I held his left upper arm gently and asked again. This time, he looked at me, slightly nodded, and looked at his feet. We walked down the staircase together, slowly. I warned him that there are more stairs when we reach the station, and he nodded. When we reached the other set of stairs, probably >50 steps, I held his arm again (except for during short breaks where some parts were 'flat'), and slowly walked down with him, step by step.

When we reached the bottom, I asked if he was ok, because it felt like he wanted to rush towards the end.... maybe he thought he was inconveniencing me, or maybe he felt shy because I was helping him, I don't know. He didn't respond (maybe he was catching his breath — in retrospect, he might have had speech difficulty because he was quiet the whole time)... but when I said "Assalamualaikum" (peace be upon you) and waved to him before I left, he smiled at me, which broke my heart.

When are we going to take accessibility seriously?

I helped because I was so scared he might tumble down and hurt himself, because his hands were shaking while he was grabbing hold of the railings. He was quite small (shorter than me), so holding him up wasn't too hard, but both of us were sweating when we got to the end because it really was a long way down.

A few years ago, a lovely lady who took care of me when I was a student in a foreign country said she treated me like a daughter so that inshallah someone will treat her daughter (who was living abroad at the time) kindly too. Perhaps I saw the pakcik the same way — my parents both have weak knees, and they struggle with stairs/going downhill, so I also hope that if someone sees my parents struggling somewhere, they would care enough to offer assistance... but that doesn't solve the problem, does it?

The problem is, why are we not making our public services better for everyone?

It's 2019, dammit. When are we going to make public amenities, esp. public transport, 100% accessible?

How long are we going to ignore our privillege and keep citizens who are already marginalised from getting around?

This is inhumane.