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For gainful employment
By Anthony Thanasayan, 2 Sep 1999
Used with permission from Star Publications (M) Berhad
ONE of the toughest problems faced by individuals with disabilities in society today is that not many wish to employ them.
Even if you have the skills a job requires, if you happen to be a person with a learning difficulty or in a wheelchair with cerebral palsy, blind or with low vision, or a person who's totally deaf or hard of hearing--you can't have the job!
Well, a forum entitled Towards Effective Career Development and Gainful Employment, under the umbrella of the Malaysian Association for Education (Persatuan Pendidikan Malaysia), is hoping to change all that.
The association plans to look into the needs and problems encountered by disabled employees and the businesses that employ them.
Sandiyao Sebestian is chairman of the association's Forum Committee Special Education Project; he is also a faculty of education lecturer at Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, and has worked with people with learning difficulties for almost 30 years.
He explains how the project was first mooted: "We decided to come up with this special project as a result of consultations with various disabled people and groups.
"Many of them felt strongly that they want to focus on not only job opportunities for disabled people but also on career guidance towards the right kind of job as well as techniques and skills needed to enable and better equip themselves in the workforce."
According to Sebestian, the disabled people he spoke to also stressed that they didn't want a technical and elaborate session but, rather, a down-to-earth and more targeted approach to contemporary issues related to disabled employment in the form of a one-day forum.
"The forum, they hope, will discuss issues which will help enable them as people with special needs to find ways and means to become more marketable and gainfully employed in the workplace.
"In this way they will be better prepared to meet the demands of the community rather than end up becoming obsolete or redundant in our society.
Thus, the special project, which started early this year, includes public education and dissemination of information as two major thrusts in its activities--and that includes the forum, explains Sebestian.
In line with trying to ensure the efficacy of their upcoming English/Bahasa Melayu forum, the organisers have lined up several well-known as well as lesser-known disabled individuals as their primary speakers.
The disabled panellists are: wheelchair-user Bathmavathi Krishnan, Wong Huey Siew of the Malaysian Association for the Blind, Jessica Mak of the YMCA Deaf Club and Lee Chee Hong from the PJ Spastics Centre. Persons with learning difficulties will be represented by James Kuttan from the Association for Mentally Retarded Children of Selangor and the Federal Territory.
Sebestian says: "The presence of our disabled panellists emphasises our belief that disabled persons should be allowed to speak for themselves as they are in the best position to tell us not only what's wrong or right in their respective work environments but what we can do together to find solutions to problems."
"When the disabled make their case, we hope that the employers will listen to what they have to say and suggest. And we hope that this process will in turn help employers better understand the needs of special people," says Sebestian.
Sebestian adds that the forum is designed to also provide a platform for employers of disabled persons to voice their opinions.
Employers will also be given a chance to give their views about how successful they have been in employing disabled people in their workforce.
"We also wish to listen to the setbacks they have encountered together with the measures, if any, they took to overcome those problems in employing people with disabilities."
Sebestian feels that the exchange of ideas will prove helpful for all when employing disabled people in future. "We hope the forum, in the end, will manage to draw out at least some of the key issues on employment problems faced by disabled people today. From there we hope to make some suggestions on how these points can be successfully resolved in future."
Sebestian adds that the forum also aims to challenge and try to change society's negative and stereotyped perceptions that disabled persons are only capable of holding sedentary and desk jobs.
"On the contrary, in reality there is really no stopping a disabled person from holding a variety of positions and skills," says Sebestian.
"No one thinks of giving them opportunities in fields such as teaching, engineering, architecture or even technological fields.
"We hope our forum will make everyone--including the disabled--rethink their present roles and contributions in our society and workforce.
"There must be some dignity, some job development and satisfaction for disabled persons at the end of the day. They must have the right to choose their jobs and career like anyone else.
"If they are happy with their jobs, they must be able to say so. If they are unhappy with their present situation, they must also be able to express it.
"For example, do they get as fair remuneration as the able-bodied at the end of the day if they are equally and adequately skilled? If not, why not?
"All it simply and really boils down to is: are disabled people enjoying a better quality of life in their workplace? Or do we just expect them to be grateful for whatever jobs we give them even if they don't get the job satisfaction or personal development they deserve?"
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