(Above) "Elevator above the library." By Author, 2023
Khun Sathit is the theater manager at ISB. He handles things like entertainment, performances, dance, drama, music, all the meetings, and assemblies. As he puts it, “you have to think creative,” in a job as busy as his, finding solutions to problems, and being adaptable, are key aspects. And it’s one of the reasons he enjoys working at ISB. Outside of school, he enjoys things like sightseeing and traveling, commenting, “I travel a lot with my wife. We drove to many places in Thailand. We want to spend time on the river bank and just quietly admire nature, the water, the boat, the people's daily life, going into the market, and talking to people.”
Khun Sathit is also a wheelchair user due to his complete spinal cord injury. This refers to permanent damage done to the spinal cord, in contrast to incomplete spinal cord injury which is partial damage to the spinal cord. Spinal Cord injuries are most likely caused by car accidents or falling from high areas. In particular, Khun Sathit’s C4 vertebrae (a small bone that is part of a group of seven other bones that make up part of the cervical spine; the neck region of your spine) dislocated and hit the spinal cord during a car accident. Khun Sathit added, “[it] means your brain is not communicating with your other nerves to your body.”
When describing the effects this has had on his life, he notes: “You can’t walk. I'm quite high [on the wheelchair]. I can move my hand, but it's not strong. My muscles are not strong, so I cannot carry something heavy. I cannot grab things like… my phone, in my hand. I cannot grab it. My fingers are not moving. I cannot use a keyboard. I have to use spatial things to type. I have a hard time breathing. If I talk too much, talk too loud, I'm going to be tired easily. I have no sensation. I cannot feel on part of my hand and the bottom part of my chest. I have no feeling at all. It's numb all the time.”
_ _ _
_ _ _
"ISB can do better."
When it comes to accessibility present at ISB, a sentiment Khun Sathit repeatedly went back to is that although ISB does try to support people with mobility aids, “ISB can do better.” For example, there are certain areas that are completely inaccessible to him if he tries to travel there by himself. Classroom doors that slide or do not have push buttons can be very restrictive because of how heavy they are and the problem with trying to reach them from his wheelchair. However, this is far from the only example Khun Sathit mentions and those cases make it clear there are design flaws that need to be addressed.
Locations like the 25 Meter Swimming pool and athletic office remain inaccessible. Furthermore, Khun Sathit talks about how, “[there are] other places I can go around, but the ramp sometimes is too steep, too dangerous.” This can be concerning as ramps are put in place to directly help with mobility, but even their designs aren’t free from flaws which reduces their overall impact, especially for wheelchair users.
Other minuscule things that can make things harder are the way some sinks are placed, like the ones in front of the food service office. “I cannot wash my hand because I cannot slide my wheelchair underneath. So I have to go and it's one hand at a time. I cannot wash my hands,” Khun Sathit remarked. In the cafeteria, he can have trouble getting food in the serving area because it can be hard to reach and the rope barrier can add to this issue. Even his own office door was hard to open as a sliding door before it was changed.
These are examples of smaller faults that don’t need to go unnoticed by ISB and can be improved.
_ _ _
Ken Chollacoop is a Junior and is currently in his 12th year here at ISB. He describes himself as “a bit of a nerd,” enjoying science, the concept of creating things through arts and crafts, and a video game enjoyer (being a particular fan of the survival-game Rust). He’s currently taking HL Chemistry, HL Physics, and HL Math, along with Economics, Thai, and English.
Ken uses a cane to help him move around, with his physical disability being spinal cord related.“When I was one and a half years old, I had a [...] I don't really know what it's called, but it's when two veins cross and it swells, but this happened near my T10, T11 vertebrae (bones that form the base of the thoracic spine; the middle section of the spine) and what happened is it shifted it, paralyzing me from the waist down. So basically there isn't really a solid name for my disability because it's a rare case, but I just have very little control over my legs,” Ken explains.
In addition to this, he believes the biggest impact his disability has is on his hobbies and the types of things he enjoys doing. It’s why he enjoys science and other activities that can be done sitting in his room. Other than that, he believes his life hasn’t been impacted too much by his disability but mentions there are certain things he can’t enjoy: “I don't like going out a lot because walking around the mall and things like that are more physically taxing than they are for the average human.”
_ _ _
_ _ _
As stated before, Ken has been at ISB since kindergarten but states that his disability hasn’t affected his experience until high school. The elementary years were built around self-contained classrooms and the middle school benefits from a centrally located elevator. The high school, in comparison, has a more complicated layout with Ken having to “traverse back and forth either from the elevator or just pop up by the stairs.” The only thing he really has to keep in mind is the time it takes to go places which can make him occasionally late for his classes. There’s also the question of what ways are the most convenient for getting to different classes. For instance, he shared, “I basically only use the elevator for the CCT because when it comes to the main building, it's positioned in a really awkward place because it's all the way over there [near the library]. So my classes are mostly in the HS quad. So to go all the way there, to go up a couple of floors and walk back, it's not worth it. So I would just use the stairs.” In general, he agrees it’s more convenient to use the elevator in the CCT to go to Thai class, on the third floor, rather than use the main building’s elevator to get to a class.
There are still some problems when it comes to the elevators though. As previously mentioned, the elevator in the high school building is placed in “a really awkward” position causing its use to be minimized. Adding onto this, elevator regulation is an issue in itself. Ken speaks about how this problem magnifies in the CCT, where it is more tempting for others to use because it is not in an open area: “It's constantly being used by people who don't need to use it and it's not the fastest of elevators. So oftentimes I'll just be sitting there at the bottom floor just waiting for it to come back down.”
The CCT also has another shortcoming in regard to the entrance, because if someone wants to go to the building they need to go all the way around the main building to enter, and there’s really only one entrance available (sky bridge and main entrance). If another entrance was constructed it could combat this and it’s “the only real thing,” Ken would request.
This still leaves the question though, what can ISB do specifically to make accessibility better? As Ken and Khun Sathit both shared, although the school does try to accommodate people with physical disabilities with things like elevators and ramps, there are aspects that can be improved.
Now, Vahen King’s talk about disability accessibility at ISB has led the school to consider changes. However, both Ken and Khun Sathit answered that they had not been directly spoken to about these changes, which highlights a bigger problem that ISB exhibits concerning accessibility; a lack of communication with the people who actually need to use that support.
“Changing the environment is not that hard, but changing people's understanding is so hard.”
“Changing the environment is not that hard, but changing people's understanding is so hard,” Khun Sathit states, “It's not their [other people’s] fault, but they're not like me. They don't understand, so I think changing is starting with yourself, starting about your attitude, starting about your understanding. And it's not pitiful, but you need to understand, and empower them [people with disabilities].” He continues by saying it’s absolutely critical that before changing the environment to help someone you need to understand and involve them first: “ Whatever you want to do for people, not only disabled people but everyone you need to understand things like.. if you want to build a ramp for people with disabilities, you should ask them ‘Hey, is this ramp okay?’ In the world, they have a standard [for things like this] already designed. Just follow the design and ask people and then I think that's going to be a starting point at ISB.”
Ken also expresses the need for people to be respectful in terms of tools meant for people with physical disabilities: “The ISB community is fairly respectful of disability. People don't really make fun of it or anything like that. It's just mainly that fact that when it comes to tools that are meant for people who need them. Like, you shouldn't use it if you have the privilege of being able to not use it. Yeah, because, like, sure, we as a handicapped community may be the same in terms of, like, human nature, and we're all, you know, people, but we are people who tend to need more when it comes to physical things.”
For ISB to truly support people with physical disabilities, communication, understanding, and listening are the most important values that need to be more deeply embodied. ISB shouldn’t strive to do the bare minimum to prepare for the students and staff currently in school, but also for the future ISB students and staff. In other words, ISB can always do better.
Works Cited
Cleveland Clinic. “Cervical Spine (Neck): What It Is, Anatomy & Disorders.” Cleveland Clinic, 18 Jan. 2022, my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22278-cervical-spine#:~:text=Your%20cervical%20spine%20%E2%80%94%20the%20neck. Accessed 21 Feb. 2023.
---. “Thoracic Spine: What It Is, Function & Anatomy.” Cleveland Clinic, my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/22460-thoracic-spine#:~:text=Your%20thoracic%20spine%20is%20the. Accessed 21 Feb. 2023.