Antika Sawadsri, PhD
August 30, 2018Dr. Sawadsri is the Dean and Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Architecture at the King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology in Bangkok. She received her Ph.D. from the School of Architecture at the University of Newcastle in the United Kingdom. Her academic interest is two-fold: the role of disabled people and accessibility concerns in built environments, and the role of disabled people in terms of negotiating and changing their disabling environments. While the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is based on human rights, Thailand’s disability legislation has been based on a medical and regulatory approach. The concept of disability widely held in Thai society views disability as an individual problem capable of charitable resolution. Consequently, efforts to enforce rights according to this law have struggled. The Persons with Disabilities’ Quality of Life Promotion Act, 2007 is the first that mentions rights-based disability law. It contains anti-discrimination provisions based on physical or health conditions and guarantees access to social welfare and services for disabled people. However, change comes slowly. There is now a need to focus on society’s attitude and understanding of disability.