A landmark court ruling in favor of disability rights will compel the BTS Skytrain system to make all of its stations and trains accessible to passengers with disabilities.
Disabled-rights activists celebrated victory yesterday when the Supreme Administrative Court overturned a lower court ruling to demand the Bangkok Mass Transit System upgrade all of its facilities to be accessible 15 years after the rail system opened for business.
“Today is a victory for disabled people handed to them by the SAC,” activist Suporntum Monkolsawadi told Bangkok Post. “It’s a symbol of the ‘people era.'”
Suporntum’s Redemptorist Foundation for People with Disabilities brought the case against several defendants including the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. Six years ago a lower court ruled the system’s operator didn’t run afoul of accessibility laws because they did not exist in 1999, when the service began.
Only five of the system’s original 23 stations are equipped with elevators, but yesterday’s ruling mandated that a sufficient number be installed at all stations, and each train must include one car accessible to passengers with disabilities.
Photo: Jackworld
