Chapter 1 - Report of the Education and Public Relations Group 3. ISSUES AFFECTING PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES Children with disabilities deserve equal opportunities in life Having ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 6 July 2012, the Government is obliged to upgrade polices and laws to deliver a disabled-friendly public environment. Related issues were raised in a memorandum submitted to the Commission by Gerakan Bersama Kebangkitan OKU 2012, which called for public and private sector attention to the specific needs of Persons with Disabilities (PwD). (a) Physical amenities The wider community’s failure to understand and appreciate the needs of PwD is largely the reason why many facilities for this group are misused or unused, or why PwD do not take up opportunities available to them. This had been initially raised in Roundtable Discussions (RTD) with local authorities in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Perak and Penang in 2011. The Commission next engaged those in Terengganu, Sarawak, Johor Bahru, Sarawak and Sabah during the year under review. Information collated during the RTD will be compiled in a report to be published in 2013. At the RTD, the Department of Social Welfare briefed participants on related laws, while local councils presented ‘best practices’ for input and feedback. Representatives of PwD raised such issues as the lack of special equipment or procedures in responding to emergencies. For instance, a hearing-impaired participant related his inability to communicate from an emergency telephone booth located along a highway, while another spoke about being trapped in an elevator without being able to speak to maintenance personnel. Although emergencyresponse mechanisms were available in both cases, these could not be utilised by the PwD. The issue that is most consistently raised, however, is the misuse of facilities for the PwD, such as parking spaces or washrooms, by insensitive able-bodied persons. Article 9 of the CRPD requires State Parties to take appropriate measures to ensure access for PwD, on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, transportation, information 34