People with disabilities have been prevented from becoming professional athletes in sport as Indonesia has yet to have a sports competition system and facilities accessible by all people, especially those with disabilities, in all regions across the archipelago.
Existing stigma still also hinders people with disabilities to enjoy physical activities in public sphere. Society still perceives them as incompetent. They are often eliminated from everyday game and sports.
It’s a paradox. Society feels sorry for them, but on the other hand people don’t give them a chance to join, or to be included. People with disabilities are often just spectators or a mere complimentary.
To give a clear picture, some 5 percent of Indonesian population or around 2.5 million people live with disabilities. They either have physical disability, sensory disability, mental disabilities, or intellectual disabilities. Of the 17,6 million people with disabilities of productive ages, only 7,6 million can have formal jobs. This data show how much they are excluded from formal workplaces.
Sports can actually be an alternative for people with disabilities to have a career. In addition to professional sports, people with disabilities also have the right to take part in recreational sports.
However, this is still far from reality when special accommodations and facilities for persons with disabilities to access sport arenas are yet available. There is no disability-friendly transportation to get to the field, no special roads for wheelchairs, no special toilets for disabilities, no Braille letter on every sign, not many officers who understand sign language and so on, making it very difficult for people with disabilities to get to the fields and sports centers.
There have definitely been no friendly places for them to be.
The fact is Indonesia already has a law regulating the rights of persons with disability. Law No. 8/2016 was created to eliminate discrimination against persons with disabilities in all fields, giving them the same rights as non-disabled people.
However, the government still has a big homework to implement it.
The inequality of champion bonuses in the field of sports, for instance, can be a concrete evidence. In world events, Olympic gold medallists get much bigger bonuses than Paralympic gold medallists.
Official sport events and competitions specifically for persons with disabilities are also not widely available in every region. Indonesia must also prepare experts who understand sports involving people with disabilities, both in coaching and refereeing aspects, as well as developing disability-specific infrastructure in each venue and sport center.
Looking at that the fact that Indonesia’s development is highly uneven from region to region, with Java and Sumatra as the most highly developed islands, it’s no surprise that even distribution of inclusive infrastructure for people with disability is still a big problem. So, disability-friendly infrastructure evenly built across the archipelago is what needed urgently to allow wider participation of people with disability in sports competitions across the regions.
However, it takes open and intensive communication between the central government and local governments to make it happen, something that is difficult to do, especially when the governor, mayors and regents have other politically more important priorities as well as when the regional heads come from different political parties than the ruling government in Jakarta. It’s the hope of 2.5 million people with disability that all differences can be put aside, and governments in Jakarta and the regions can see this as an urgent issue, more than others, or at leas as important as others.
While government’s role is crucial, it’s a shift in society’s mindset that is most needed.
The paradigm that people with disabilities are an imperfect person must be changed into a mindset that regard them as people who have different potential. It does take a long way but it’s not impossible. They don’t need a pity, but a chance.
All the society needs is the openness and empathy to provide opportunities for persons with disabilities to participate in physical activities wherever they are in everyday life.
Sports is where we play together without any gaps and barriers.
