Time to Close all Gaps in Support for Disabled People, and Change Entrenched Attitudes Towards Disability

Ms Nur Sarah Qistina’s letter (A smile can help ease the challenge of looking after special needs kids, Nov 11) burdens my heart. Even with collective efforts in spreading autism awareness, Ms Qistina’s experiences, sadly, remain common occurrences. She is not alone; I had witnessed special needs families’ struggles, such as a mother saying “Sorry, he is special needs”, to deflect unwanted public stares at her son’s behaviour. I quietly thought “she should not have to apologise for who her son is!”. Clearly something is amiss in our society.

Being born in the early 1990’s, an era when autism awareness was lacking much more than today, I was often a victim of public stares. My parents constantly suppressed my so-called undesirable behaviours and chided me for causing embarrassment. If society were more accepting and less judgmental, my parents would not have had to resort to this nor be overly-conscious of public perception. Instead, our unaccepting society deprived me of a healthy parent-child relationship.

Developed nations around the world are adopting a new thinking model that disability results from societal, environmental and attitudinal barriers, and removing such barriers will enable disabled people’s full participation in society. It is imperative for Singapore to follow suit if she proclaims to be a developed nation on the world stage. It is time we enact laws protecting the interest and wellbeing of the disabled like we do for minors below 18, minority races, women’s rights etc. 

Shifting people’s entrenched attitudes and ignorance of autism is key. I urge the Government to mandate that all frontline, retail and customer-fronting staff attend educational autism courses. We must reinforce, time and again, into Singaporeans' minds that disabled people are equal members of society, deserving the same dignity and respect. Autistic people’s way of expressing feelings, thoughts and behaviours are no less dignified, no less repsectable, but just different. To think their behaviours are undesirable in public is an artificial man-made social construct. 

As an autistic advocate, I continuously advocate autism education and greater acceptance. But it takes two hands to clap, the public must reciprocate. 

As we anticipate the unveiling of the Enabling MasterPlan 2030, I hope to see Singapore’s disability landscape and attitudes transform radically before 2030. I hope this blogpost causes individuals and policy makers to deeply reflect on this poignant issue.

Wesley Loh

Comments

  1. EUMAXINDIA17 December 2021 at 19:39

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Workplace Fairness Legislation needs to mandate reasonable accommodations to adequately protect persons with disabilities including autistics

Introduction of the Workplace Fairness Legislation (WFL): It was announced in Ministry of Manpower (MOM) press release on 12 February 2023  that the Tripartite Committee on Workplace Fairness released an interim report on their recommendations for Workplace Fairness Legislation (WFL). The summary of the recommendations can be found in Annex A of the MOM press release and the full interim report can be downloaded at  go.gov.sg/wfl . It is a good step towards protecting minority groups against discrimination. A gap in the WFL - missing "reasonable accommodations", and why it must be included However, what is lacking is the recommendations do NOT include mandating that employers make reasonable accommodations in the workplace despite its clear necessity to ensure persons with disabilities (PWDs) are adequately protected. A requirement for "reasonable accommodations" is aligned with the United Nations (UN) Conventions on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD) r...
Read more

Poem for "A Very Special Walk" 2024, signature fundraising programme of Autism Resource Centre (Singapore)

Almost every year we have "A Very Special Walk Where we put on our socks Walk or run from from block to block No competition no need to watch the clock All just for a common cause In 2020 came the COVID-19 panademic Causing nationwide panic For some it was even traumatic With social distancing rules so rigid A fundraising event like this no longer could be so systematic   But undeterred, we switched to virtual  challenges no less authentic   With everyone's creativity we became more dramatic Not more timid Everyone could participate in a virtual challenge, from running or swimming for the  athletic To dancing for the  kinaesthetic To sports for those with muscles  kinetic To intellectual feats for those with skills like drawing, language or mathematics   Each challenge was organic Completed with unique tactics Some even majestic  COVID-19 crisis did not pull us apart, we became more synergic For donations we continued to solicit All in all, the re...
Read more

Inferiority Complex: It is Real. It is Valid. It is Ok to have it. Environmental Changes could be key to managing it.

Inferiority Complex is Valid I nferiority Complex : a real and valid thing affecting many people. Even official sources like American  Psychiatric Association (APA) explains it. Inferiority Complex is NOT Pride Yet some dismiss inferiority complex it as "Not true" and wrongly attribute it to a pride problem. What warped and ridiculous thinking. What's worse, these guys are spiritual leaders... must be narrow-minded ones. Perhaps they grew up in environments where they hardly needed to suffer from inferiority complex, and/or the "sin of pride" is a concept so ingrained in them that they apply it wrongly to situations --> if so, that reinforces my hypothesis that they are narrow-minded - they see things through a single lens and only through those lens. They misled me to believing other fallacies too, such as seeing autism books as idolatry (it doesn't matter even if I got obssessed over the books and the topic of autism, it does NOT mean it is idolatry)....
Read more