Singapore Government Press Release

Media Relations Division, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts,

MITA Building, 140 Hill Street, 2nd Storey, Singapore 179369

Tel: 6837-9666

Mr Gerard Ee

President, National Council of Social Service

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

I am happy to join you this morning to launch the Assistive Technology Fund, or ATF. With help from this fund, people with special needs can use technology to further their education and to gain employment. ATF is jointly developed by my Ministry and the National Council of Social Service to help people with special needs become self-reliant, confident and contributing members of society.

The current economic downturn is having its impact on Singaporeans and more so for people with special needs. It is my Ministry’s belief that people with disabilities, just like able-bodied people, want to be independent, gainfully employed, and be part of mainstream life. For this reason, integration is a key principle that drives our disability policies and programmes.

Many people have shown us that it is possible to overcome the odds and excel. Among the winners of the annual productivity awards last year were Mr She Ah Hock and Mr Thiyagarajan. They were recognised for going the extra mile to be innovative and in making significant contributions to their companies. Ah Hock is hearing-impaired and Thiagarajan is physically disabled.

Another fine example is Mr William Chew who won the Most Inspiring Lifelong Learner Award. William earned two diplomas studying part time while holding a full time job. I must add that William is hearing-impaired.

I should also mention our delegation of 44 young sportsmen and women who did Singapore proud at the recent Dublin Special Olympics. Their medal tally was 8 Golds, 14 Silvers and 15 Bronzes.

Earlier this year I announced in Parliament that my Ministry will strengthen our programmes for the disabled. We will also focus on upstream programmes for children and enhance the services that promote their integration in mainstream schools.

Over the past six months, we have made good progress. We have introduced an integrated childcare programme that provides childcare places for children with special needs. This allows the child to learn in the same environment as other children, and interact with peers while receiving sufficient attention for special needs. In due course, the child will be better able to make a smooth transition to primary school.

Six childcare centres are now running the programme. Of the 60 places offered, 60% is already filled and another 30% is expected to be taken up by December. A customer satisfaction survey carried out among parents has revealed positive feedback. Parents felt that the programme has helped both them and their children. One parent also told The Straits Times that she was overjoyed at the sight of her five year-old autistic son learning to feed himself and improving on his social skills. I am therefore happy to add that another six childcare centres will join this programme early next year.

In line with this move, my Ministry has recently taken over from the Ministry of Education, three centres currently located in Special Education Schools which conduct early intervention programmes for infants and children. In addition, government funding has been arranged for the Autism Children Centre, which is operated by a volunteer welfare organisation.

In all, a total of 450 children with special needs and below the age of six are benefiting from the early intervention programmes . MCDS is working with NCSS to streamline the programme goals and service standards of these centres. Initiatives are underway to expand the programme to enable more parents with young children to benefit from early intervention and develop the potential of their children.

Students with special needs in national schools and tertiary institutions can look forward to the Community Integration Support (CIS) programmes to help them cope with the demands of mainstream education. Currently, the Asian Women’s Welfare Association’s Teach Me service, benefits more than 250 students with physical disabilities in the schools. The students, their families and teachers have access to a team of professionals, comprising social workers, therapists, psychologists and resource teachers. Early next year, the programme is to be extended to hearing-impaired students in mainstream schools. Close to 500 hearing-impaired students are expected to benefit from the programme.

Advancement in technology has made it possible to assist further people with special needs to lead normal lives. Assistive technology is a key enabler in helping persons with disabilities become more independent. Assistive devices include vision and reading aids, hearing and listening aids, communication aids, prosthetics and computer access aids, just to name a few. These devices go a long way in helping disabled persons lead a normal life.

Take for example Miss Tan Siew Leng. Siew Leng, who is now in Secondary 4, started losing her vision when she was in Primary 4. Thanks to the assistive technology, Siew Leng can now do her schoolwork with the help of a BrailleNote – a personal digital assistant-like device. She can also surf the internet and communicate with her friends through emails with the help of a screen reader and speech synthesizer.

While such devices are promising, their usage remain sporadic. The main reason is cost, and cost puts these devices beyond the reach of many who could benefit from them. For example, I was told that a Braille-note laptop may cost as much as $7,000 while a cochlear implant up to $30,000, not to mention the training and maintenance costs.

For this reason, MCDS will invest in making some of these devices accessible to the lower income group in order to facilitate their education and employment. The Government has set aside a sum of $2 million as an Assistive Technology Fund for three years to ensure that persons with disabilities can afford and access appropriate enabling technology. The Fund will provide means-tested grants of up to a maximum of $10,000 to needy individuals to purchase assistive devices that could enable them to pursue an education or gain employment.

The Fund will help complement the provisions that the Government has already put in place to facilitate the integration of the disabled. For example, our MRT/LRT systems are progressively being upgraded to be universally accessible. One in every cluster of 8-9 schools will be disabled friendly. And employers can claim tax deduction for workplace modifications that are necessary to employ a person with disability.

The Government’s initiatives can only succeed with the support of all the stakeholders. Employers must play their part in giving persons with disabilities the opportunity to work. In this respect, I would like commend enlightened employers such as Coffee Bean, Trusted Hub and Kentucky Fried Chicken who have taken the extra effort to provide employment to persons with special needs. In so doing, they have demonstrated that corporate citizens can play a role in assisting people with special needs.

In closing, let me thank NCSS for kindly agreeing to administer the Assistive Technology Fund and providing the necessary support. My wish for all successful applicants to the Assistive Technology Fund is for your dreams to be fulfilled with the help of these aids.

Thank you.