Living With Disability

Eleonore Laloux has battled all her life to be treated like others. Now the 34-year-old is waging a new campaign: to become one of the first women in France with Down’s syndrome to win a local council seat in this month’s municipal elections.

Deaf artist Candice Singha Wong is all excited and counting the hours before her acrylic painting, Destination To The Summit, goes on display at Art4love’s The Gifted art exhibition in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow.

As a disabled person, I am disturbed by the lack of facilities open to me and many others like me in Malaysia. I am not just worried about the disabled but also the elderly, who may have difficulty accessing public spaces.

At Universiti Malaya, much is being done to assist disabled students in workforce readiness and career development via efforts by the Students With Disability Management unit of the Psychology Management & Counselling section of the institution’s Student Affairs Division.

For graduates with disabilities, the situation is even more challenging. With an uncertain business climate, many organisations and companies prefer to employ graduates who they think can hit the ground running from day one. For them, graduates with disabilities may not match their expectations.

Self-employment is something persons with disabilities (PWDs) could consider. The lack of employment opportunities notwithstanding, it may just pay off handsomely, as attested by Mohd Sukur Ibrahim, who hails from Sungai Udang in Melaka.

For the disabled, there are barriers to sports that deter them from the physical, mental and social benefits that could be had from such participation.