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