Monday, June 16, 2008

Malaysian disability advocate explains benefits of blogging

Peter Tan speaks about blogging on disability issues.

About 2,000 bloggers in Malaysia gathered to meet face-to-face, and one of the speakers was disability advocate and blogger Peter Tan, reported The Star Online, which helped organize the event.

Tan said blogging allows him to advocate effectively on the rights of disabled people.

“The public don't really see many of the disabled people in the city because the environment and public transport is not made accessible to them,” said Tan (pictured above).

“I know of airlines that don't accept the disabled," he said. “Those that do, meanwhile, require us to sign indemnity forms whereby we cannot sue the airline in the event the craft crashes or some other untoward incident occurs.

“Why the need for such conditions when disabled people pay the same airfare as everyone else?” he asked.

Tan said blogging allowed him to disseminate information with ease and reach out to people who know little about disability issues because the mainstream media rarely cover the topic.

“It also provides unlimited space for us to give more radical views about a certain situation, which is sometimes not reported in the mainstream media,” he added.