After conducting interviews with organisations and gaining a better understanding of the support network for PWDs in Singapore, I realised that the key step to achieving an inclusive society that was highlighted was education. Although many initiatives have been introduced by the government, with NGOs and agencies offering an abundance of programmes, services and resources, cooperation from the general public is required, which is also reinforced the Enabling Masterplan and has been brought up by different organisations. It is vital that people become more educated on how to interact with and support PWDs so that as a society we can remove stigma and prevent stereotypes from hindering an individuals ability to reach their full potential. Therefore, I decided to send out a questionnaire to family, friends and others in order to see whether there is a gap between what is considered ‘ideal’ and what is actually happening realistically.
Firstly, as I expected, the responses indicated that people still need to be educated on the disability etiquette. More than 50% of people said that they would normally refer to someone with a disability as a ‘disabled person’, which is not considered respectful because it suggests that their disability is the first thing that we notice, rather than who they are as a person – this was something mentioned during my interview with Mr Yaros Shumovskyi as well.
Secondly, the responses highlighted the disparity between people being supportive of the idea of advancing towards an inclusive society and people being comfortable interacting with a PWD. This suggests that although some people may have adopted the right mindset to enable PWDs to become integral members of society, it is important for people to volunteer at organisations and continue to educate themselves on the disability etiquette so that we can interact with, integrate and include PWDs into the community, rather than categorizing them as a separate group. This would also help to enhance the community living skills of PWDs and boost their self-esteem as they feel accepted and respected.
Thirdly, as part of educating oneself to become more aware of how to interact with PWDs, people should also familiarise themselves with the support services provided by organisations as well as the initiatives introduced by the Singapore government. According to my questionnaire, only 3.3% of people said they were aware of many services and programmes that support PWDs, with almost 75% of people saying they were unfamiliar with the nations initiatives and schemes aimed integrating and including PWDs in society. Therefore, by becoming aware of what the nation is doing as a whole, this would enable more people to acknowledge the support network in Singapore and further understand how we, especially employers (because employment is tightly interlinked with the enhancing of skills, gaining of knowledge, boosting of confidence, hence overall development and improvement of quality of life of an individual), can support PWDs.
