-Chai

 Analysis on the bodystorming conducted on the 16th of January 2019. I had been task to empathise with the physically disabled by simulating someone on crutches and a wheelchair. During the initial stages in school, I had used the crutches. Traversing the school was hard, climbing stairs, unnecessarily using ramps that wasted a lot of time. Throughout this whole journey, there were always peering eyes from the students, a possibility of showing sympathy. The armpits were not comfortable as pressure was always exerted on them. Afterwards, I was swapped into the wheelchair, arms were sore due to the need to ‘paddle’ oneself around. Accessing the MRT was a little hectic, tapping in and out whilst wheeling in, getting on board the train whatsoever. Throughout the journey, people wither gave looks or avoided eye contact. One man was hogging the wheelchair spot on the train, after giving way, the man stayed quiet still.  

 -Danial

Today my role was to be disabled and my route was from design school to Jurong East Mrt and back. For the trip to Jurong East, i was using crutches and it was my first time using one so it was quite hard for me to get use to it. When using the crutches it was quite hard as it placed a lot of pressure on the arm pits. One side had the rubber sponge but it was missing for the other side. Honestly, the rubber sponge only helped to a certain extend as it started to hurt after a while but was more effective than not having the sponge at all. For movement around the school the only problem was going up and down the steps as i had to balance myself and go either up or down. When i was at the mrt gantry, the problem i faced was trying to place my wallet back to my pocket after i tapped as i didnt know how soon would the gantry closed thus i had to use the crutches while holding my wallet which was challenging. When  boarding the train only an elderly woman offered her seat to me which happened to be the priority seat. It was to an extend emotionally/mentally challenging as i didnt know if she should have the seat even if i was really injured, I felt guilty as she also needed the seat. However the others on board tried not to notice me when i boarded either losing their eyes or looking away. The next problem i encountered was when i had to alight. Since i was using crutches it was had to stand up to stand next to the door while the train was nearing a stop thus i had to wait for the train to come to a complete stop before standing up. Furthermore Jurong East is very busy and even though it was not peak hour there were already a lot of people trying to exit the train, resulting in taking very long to alight. We went down by the lift ad it was not easy since the crutches did not allow me to bend freely thus i hand to position myself to press the button. Fortunately there was an elderly couple that assisted me in getting in the lift by holding the door and the same when i exited the lift. Overall using the crutches was very exhausting and even though i was not under the sun i was sweating profusely. For my trip back i used the  wheelchair. At the lift getting in was easy but getting out was hard as i had to rotate 180 degrees in order to face the door and exit, given the small space in the lift and other people using it it was hard to maneuver myself out. Trying to board the train was one of the hardest as the train that stopped was higher than the platform and furthermore the gap between was hugh (maybe because of perspective). Instead of rolling over the edge, the front wheels got stuck in the gap resulting in Chai and Scott having to lift me in the wheelchair up and over the gap and onto the train which felt embarrassing. Alighting and going through the gantry was without a problem. Now I had to head back to class. We went back by the most wheelchair friendly route but it was still challenging. As a non-disabled person i thought ramps would solve the problem of people using the wheelchair but mistakes were made. Although the ramp was a better alternative than the stairs it was exhausting going up. Two problems i faced were the incline and the probability of rolling back. The wheel goes both forward and backwards freely and on long slopes it is a problem as i had to push the wheels forward and hold them to prevent myself from rolling back. 

Excluding all the external factors and actions that unfolded throughout the whole experience of being either in a wheelchair or in crutches, there are more individualistic problems that one faces whilst operating such apparatus that aids the physically disabled. Initially I was assigned the crutches to traverse the school to see how these people overcome regular obstacles such as curbs, turnstiles and stairs; to my surprise, even ramps were sometimes an issue, the elevation was making hard to use the crutches yet holding the handrails would take a longer time than just holding the handrails up the stairs. Not to mention the actual apparatus itself, it’s more utility based than comfort (according to the crutches that was given to us from the SD office). The poor excuse for comfort lies in the padding of the crutches, supposedly to be tucked under your pits, which was detrimental, both to my pits and my comfort. Easily sweaty, it makes every step excruciatingly uncomfortable. Another flaw of design is that the padding for the pits are easily removed and thus we were given one without a padding which made EVERYTHING a lot worse. These design flaws may allow us to further improve and produce a solution.

 Afterwards I was swapped into the wheelchair, the whole experience was catastrophic to say the least. Amidst from the peering eyes, judgmental looks or the subtle assistance from here and there, there are flaws within the wheelchair (Given from SD office) as well. The wheels were unable to move through ramps that easily, be it upwards or downwards. Slopes were a common enemy as traversing upwards required A LOT of energy trying to wheel myself. Not only that, going downhill is much worse as you can’t really stop or regulate the speed and there will always be a chance of falling, backwards or forward. Wheeling it in general was a pain in the ***, figuratively and literally. The seat made my bottoms hurt and made my back sweat since there was little to no ventilation back there. If we were to focus on the comfort, brakes, handling and front wheels, we are surely able to create a solution that would benefit disabled travelling ANYWHERE.

Moving on to primary research, we conducted an observation on how people interacted on a bus using the POEMS method that we had learnt. One thing that we had observed was how people reacted when when a wheelchair-bound person was helped onto the bus with the aid of the bus driver. Interestingly enough, no one was able to get onto the bus as the front door was still closed during this procedure.  We have also noted that there was mixed reactions on how they would react to him. While people gave space for him to go up on board,  they did not do it in a very gracious manner

 

Ryan’s

Danial’s

- Believes that government should provide more space for the disabled to use, educate people not having disabilities to move so that the disabled could receive space                                                                                                                                                               - Not fair for those with disabilities to experience this treatment, as they are not born this way, and they should be equally treated  - Singaporeans (majority) are very judgemental, discriminate those with disabilities without knowing what is happening to the disabled and believes sometimes as they are a nuisance                                                                                                                               -  From the interview, it tells she is quite clear about the situations. She is a frequent passenger of public transport , and she gives clear speeches of how she had experienced it as well as giving examples on how to help the disabled.                          

Using coloured sticky notes, we were able to categorise our data into a manageable and organised manner. Once we compiled our findings together and sorted it out, we realised that our data can be categorized under 3 main points. The first point being the equipment used to aid those with physical disabilities, the second point targeting the environment and services provided and finally our third point being the social stigma and approaches towards the physically disabled. The benefit of allocating our data in such a way allowed us to see the bigger picture of the factors that affected our project statement.

 

-While the government is taking actions to help the physically disabled get around, not all are practical solutions as it still creates problems/inconveniences them.

-No one was there or offered help when a disabled person was having difficulties commuting.

-More people gave way not so much because they empathise and wanted to aid the disabled and instead more so in fear of being seen as inconsiderate.

-Singaporeans tend to show discrimination against the physically disabled. However, the elderly were more open to sympathise.