“Life is too short to sulk about what you don’t have,” says 26-year-old Shahabuddin who is a student of the Psychology Department at the University of Peshawar.

He is a very special boy who learnt this hard lesson very early in his life.

He was only two years old when he was affected by polio virus.

It took him some time to realise his situation.

He gave up hope of ever standing on his two-feet and walk like any other normal boy.

However, there is no bitterness.

Life for the physically disabled could be quite challenging in a country like Pakistan where usually there are no ramps for wheelchair users in parks, shopping malls, stadiums, restaurants, schools and workplaces.

He comes across as a very positive-minded and confident youth swirling on his wheelchair all the time as he helped other wheelchair users.

“The day I accepted the reality, I focused on things that are possible,” says Shahabuddin who is actively engaged in helping other people handicapped by some accident or disease at the Paraplegic Centre, Hayatabad, as liaison officer.

However, things are not that easy as life for the disabled could be quite challenging in a country like Pakistan where usually there are no ramps for wheelchair users in parks, shopping malls, stadiums, restaurants, schools and workplaces.

Shahabuddin feels those on wheelchairs don’t need people’s charity, but access to facilities like any other person.

Accessibility is a big issue since neither the government nor private sector has been ever thoughtful of some 10-13 per cent of the population which is ‘special’ in some way or the other and need special care.

“People who have some disability are left to hide indoors and become a useless part of society,” says Shahabuddin who feels accessibility to health, education, transportation and buildings (workplaces) could make them live life like any other normal person.

“You wouldn’t see any access ramp in any building.

There are no parking spaces in any building in even posh localities in Peshawar,” said 43-year-old Ihsanullah, who was living a very active life as a teenager when an accident in1988 paralysed and restricted him to a wheelchair since then.

In 2000, I saw a player playing on a wheelchair which inspired me to play again.

I became a table tennis champion in 2006 in Asian Games for Paraplegics, he says.

Mr Ihsanullah says sports keep him active and busy just like normal people.

However, he regrets that there is no place where they could easily go to play.

Accessibility is the main issue.

He says that he along with other friends called “Friends of Paraplegics” have started a campaign to draw people’s attention to the accessibility issue faced by those on wheelchairs.

Though a staunch supporter of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Inshanullah says the government needs to take practical steps to at least resolve the accessibility issue of the people on wheelchairs.

Irfanullah, another youth who is on wheelchair after suffering an accident injury in 2010, is not only doing job in a government institution, but also used to play lawn tennis while using his wheelchair.

He says that often the players on wheelchairs had to wait for the tennis courts to be vacated by normal sportsmen.

There is no ramp for wheelchair users at many places which made their life very difficult.

All these young men, who have education and despite all odds making efforts to work and live like normal people, feel a bit disappointed at the callousness or negligence of the government for not ensuring that every building should have a ramp.

A ramp could make life much easier for those who have been rendered dependent on a wheelchair through some misfortune.

Due to one disability they could not make use of their other abilities just because there is no thought about ensuring their accessibility to basic facilities.

“I am not bothered if I have this disability,” says Shahabuddin who thinks that actually the disabled are those who don’t give a thought to the need of others and make effort to solve it.

“Deprivation is not that a person can’t walk.

Those are the actually deprived who don’t have a heart to feel for others and help them.

This is a true disability in my view,” says Shahabuddin while talking about how society tried to help the disabled by throwing few pennies into their lap.

“Does disability mean we are paupers,” wonders Shahabuddin who feels that those who really want to help the disabled should include them in social life by ensuring accessibility of the disabled to basic facilities.

Names and titles like ‘people with special needs’, “people with special abilities’ are not enough to integrate them in social life since the society’s attitudes are still somewhat derogatory towards the disabled.

“If you give five or ten rupees to a disabled you are not helping them,” says Shahabuddin who feels instead of helping, people are actually taking the only thing a handicapped can have and that is his ‘self-respect’.

Give them accessibility, he says, and they can take care of themselves.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2014