What we learn from para-athletes has to go beyond inspiration

Sporting Life Assistant Sports Editor Eric Ting would rather not take the bus.

- Rohit Brijnath

To get on he needs a ramp. He's in a wheelchair, you understand.

A tetraplegic with no sensation from the chest down after a car accident. The MRT for him is easier and he's very grateful for it. But on a bus the driver has to organise the ramp and so many are kind but some are grumpy.

"And that affects you a little," says the 52-year-old former Paralympian quietly.

"I don't like to impose on people. (I think) why do I want to put myself through that?"

I called Ting because I read a disquieting story by my colleague Deepanraj Ganesan in Sunday's paper. After the bus parade for Paralympians, he asked a few of them about life as a person with a disability in Singapore. The answers were polite, firm and revealing.

Yip Pin Xiu, seven-gold Paralympic champion, spoke about Grab drivers who sometimes are reluctant to help put her wheelchair in the boot of the car (Note: having done it myself, at 60, I can confirm the chair is light). Why are you travelling alone, some grumble, but surely that's her choice and not our business.

Imagine how demeaned she feels by that remark. Imagine Sophie Soon's distress. The Paralympic swimmer, who has deteriorating vision, uses a guide dog named Orinda and is often refused entry into restaurants even though the law is on her side. Other times, when she boards buses with Orinda, passengers often complain.