How do you and your organisation view employment of people with disabilities? What can be done to create more jobs for disabled people?

EMPLOYMENT of disabled people requires an education process - firstly for employers, and secondly for customers. Employers must first be able to treat disabled people, despite their disabilities, as an equally valuable asset as their other employees. Customers too must be able to overcome any apprehension that they may have when being serviced by a disabled person. The government could also help more employers to hire disabled people by providing various incentive schemes and training schemes for the disabled. For example, the government can give tax incentives to companies which are prepared to restructure their jobs and the working environment to allow the hiring of disabled persons.

With unemployment at record lows in recent years, we should actively be looking at ways to see how jobs can be restructured to suit the hiring of disabled people. For example, with appropriate training and some adjustments to the equipment, a call centre could be manned by blind people. In fact, in this case a disabled Singaporean will find it easier to talk and handle queries from a fellow Singaporean compared to say, a foreigner who is not familiar with the Singapore environment.

- Wee Piew
CEO, HG Metal Manufacturing Ltd