Disability Technology & News

Singapore’s Enabling Masterplan

Here is a PDF of the members on the steering committee for the Enabling Masterplan. Their terms are from 2007 to 2011.

Another step-up into society
Committee of experts to be set up to open more doors for disabled in Singapore
Jasmine Yin
Source: todayonline.com
February 13, 2007

A STANDING committee of senior officials from various ministries will be set up to address the needs and concerns of the disabled community, as disability issues cut across a broad spectrum.

It will be “supported by two governing panels to look at the core areas of early intervention and education, and at employment”, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said in Parliament yesterday. As this initiative gets underway, the Government will study closely the other recommendations put forth by the Enabling Masterplan steering group, which was tasked last September to chart the first five-year roadmap for the disabled community in Singapore.

Mr Wong’s announcement came just hours after the steering group unveiled its suggestions yesterday. While the Government did not take up its wish for a national Office on Disability, including a minister to coordinate different authorities, the Enabling Masterplan group did find its wish partially fulfilled, via the to-be-formed standing committee’s focus on early intervention and education and employment.

The Enabling Masterplan group is headed by Rainbow Centre president Professor Lee Eng Hin and includes members such as Jalan Besar MP Denise Phua, Thye Hua Kwan Moral Society chairman Lee Kim Siang and other public, private and voluntary sector players.

Ms Phua, who is also president of the Autism Resource Centre, urged for closer ties to be fostered between specialised and mainstream schools. Children with or without disabilities should be encouraged to play and learn together where possible, and their teachers to go on cross-training and staff exchange schemes. Special education should also be extended beyond the age of 18 years to 21 years, she argued. This is because some special-needs children enter school “late” and “need an extra leg up at the age of 16 or 18 when they’re not ready to exit yet” for further education or employment.

On the job front, a more structured “value-chain” should be adopted to ensure persons with disabilities (PWDs) are sufficiently prepared and trained for long-term employment. The head of the steering group’s employment sub-committee, Mr David Wong, who is also South-east Asia’s managing director and chief executive of ABN Amro bank, suggested the disabled be trained in accordance with industry needs. Voluntary welfare organisations with special expertise, such as in skills training and assessment, could team up and help one another out.

The Enable Fund — set up last year to support employers financially to redesign jobs as well as train and modify the workplace for disabled staff — should be renamed the “Open Door Fund”, said Mr Wong. The Enabling Masterplan committee is also calling for the foreign domestic worker levy — currently available to families with children under 12 years old and those with seniors 65 years old and above — to be extended to those who need extra help to care for a disabled family member.

But even as the recommendations make their way to the Government, Prof Lee hopes the society at large will pitch in to make the roadmap a reality. He said: “We want the people, the industry and philanthropy to be involved as well. Otherwise, I don’t think we can achieve all that we hope to achieve.”

Committee of experts to be set up to open more doors for disabled in Singapore

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