Tik...tik..tik. The sound is ticking from the signal junction. The blind pedestrian starts crossing the road. I was astonished by the care of government for the differently abled in this developed country. As I continued to watch from the roadside in Frankfurt the public bus approaches the bus stop and stops there to take the passengers awaiting there. The automated door opens and the bus slightly tilts to the platform side to align its foot step height to the waiting shed height. The wheel chair person waiting there rolls his wheelchair into the bus by himself. . Awesome..In my country a wheelchair person cannot even think of meeting CA of my office as it is not easy.There in the bus, I noticed a separate switch for the handicapped to signal to driver to disembark.
The life of an old and aged person in our country is not very smooth even if he is very wealthy. Everything becomes a challenge for him. Unable to switch off lights, unable to charge his mobile, unable to read the minuscule letters on the bus, unable to identify the denomination of coins of same size, unable to go out and buy the vegetables, unable to identify the the name of medicines etc, etc etc......Money is not the main issue but the ambience and services available for the differently abled and aged, such as the mobility is the major issue.
Many senior citizens do realise that they could have certainly contributed to some transformation when they were in a position to do so in their earlier age but in those days they never saw this "category of people "in their canvas. What their lens focused was always the productive young resources. But by the time they realise the error, their power button would have been deactivated.
I know one such guy who in his earlier days advocated to buy cars with better ground clearance. But it never occurred to him that such height could become an impediment to get inside the car with the age. The fact is no one is never concerned about the difficulties of a hearing impaired person or of a blind or aged person. Operating an ATM or lighting a gas stove are real challenges to these people.
I remember, I earnestly prayed from inside the train compartment when we travelled from Tiruvalla to Podannur for the stoppage of my train without overshooting the the platform so that my aged father in law could de-board easily. Otherwise the AC compartment steps may not match with the platform height.
All of us might have noticed the projected keyboard on the earlier versions of mobile. Similarly I do not know, do we consider all sections of the society when we design a road, pavement, church, temple, hospital, clinic, Govt office which are elderly and sick friendly. It is a challenge for an electric engineer to prevent a blind person from touching a live wire under any circumstance.
I am very much concerned to have these standards at every design on everything that touches our life which will make a big difference. Today there are refrigerators which can sense and order the vegetables and get it delivered to home at the click of a button.
The ultimate truth is that when you care for the other person, it is nothing but you are investing and taking care of you in the timeline. On the corollary if you want to have better life, see "others" in the broad day light as they are and feel it. That is the truth.