Call for disability response team

By LULU MARK
PEOPLE with disabilities (PWDs) want a disability response team to be established because they feel they were left behind by the Government in the Covid-19 pandemic emergency response.
Disability sector coalition representative Ben Theodore said PWDs made up 15 per cent of the country’s population (that’s 1.2 million if the population is assumed to be 8 million) but actions to include them were not taken in the Covid-19 response.
Speaking on behalf of more than 30 disability service providers across the country during a media briefing on Covid-19 preparedness for vulnerable groups – PWD, elderly and children – yesterday, Theodore said PWDs should be included in the decision-making at this time to ensure their needs were met.
He said PWDs population comprised people with various impairments (such as sight or hearing) and it was important for awareness information to be targeted at the individual impairments.
Theodore said the state of emergency and lockdown were declared to save lives but in the process of surviving, the most vulnerable were the ones with impairments
“You put yourself in their shoes and you will understand where I am coming from,” he said.
He said service providers which included the caregivers, personal assistants, family members, institutions such as Cheshire Homes and Kalang Services and people working in Government departments who provided care and know-how to care for PWDs had not been included in the response.
“So someone may ask why they should be included,” he said.
“This is because the dignity of the PWDs and their rights must be handled appropriately.”
Theodore said health workers, police and soldiers did not know how to communicate in sign language.
“We have people who are trained and are based in institutions across the country and they provide the service,” he said. “We have recommended to the SOE controller through the protection cluster to have a disability response team.”