SINGAPORE: As a 20-something fresh out of university in 2007, Ms Reena Deen thoroughly enjoyed her first job as a teaching aide in a primary school. But there was a hitch: She was bogged down by administrative tasks due to her dyslexia.

Dyslexia is a learning disability that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling. 

Ms Reena did not know it then, but her dyslexia made it extremely difficult for her to read Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, as the information on the rows appeared jumbled.  

While she had a good relationship with her colleagues and manager, she did not feel comfortable enough to share with them her problems or struggles for fear that she might lose her job. 

“The only thing we learned how to do over the years is we don't really tell people that we have this issue (disability) because if you do that, you’re instantly going to be stigmatised,” said the freelance tuition teacher and indie filmmaker.

“I internalised everything everyone was telling me, that I was just not focused.”

When it comes to speaking about disabilities, especially invisible ones like hers, Ms Reena, now 41, has noticed a marked difference in attitudes over the years since she started working

For one, she feels safe enough in her current tuition centre – her workplace for the past three years – to speak openly about her dyslexia, thanks to her manager. 

Ms Reena’s manager had shared that her son had Asperger’s Syndrome and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and she was getting him help. 

This gave Ms Reena the confidence to be more upfront about her condition, even with her young charges. 

“This is the first time in a tuition centre that I can openly share with my students about my dyslexia,” she said. 

Unlike in the past, Ms Reena can now discuss with her manager if she spots a child at the tuition centre who might be facing the same problems she had had with dyslexia. 

“I think, in a way, things are changing. But then again, I know my experience (of being open about her dyslexia with her manager) is an exception, not the norm.”  

Agreeing with Ms Reena, 26-year-old Jonathan Tiong, who has type-2 spinal muscular atrophy, said that employment opportunities for people with disabilities have improved in recent years.  

Mr Tiong used SG Enable – the main government-linked agency for persons with disabilities – to secure an internship as a compulsory module for his university course. 

SG Enable is a registered charity set up by the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) in 2013 that seeks to help people with disabilities live and work in an inclusive society. 

After his five-month internship at GIC in 2019, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund offered Mr Tiong a full-time position in corporate communications and employee engagement – a full 18 months before he was due to graduate. 

“In the past, without SG Enable, I don’t think any person with disabilities can secure any job on their own,” said Mr Tiong, currently an associate in talent and organisation strategies of the human resource department at GIC.  

Mr Tiong added that he had tried looking for another position without SG Enable as an “exercise”. He managed to secure an interview and even got an offer from the company, which he turned down. 

“I did the whole thing by myself, and the fact that I managed to secure something – I think I’m quite happy with that,” said Mr Tiong, even though he noted that searching for companies that actively hired people with disabilities was challenging. 

“It shows me there is hope for people with disabilities, that it is possible,” said Mr Tiong, who attributed his success in securing another job offer to having worked for three years at GIC. 

Indeed, people with disabilities and advocates for them told TODAY that Singapore has made good progress in fostering a more inclusive workplace environment and boosting employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

They cited government grants and support, such as the Open Door Programme and the Enabling Employment Credit, as important initiatives that have helped boost inclusive hiring.

They also pointed to the Enabling Masterplan 2030, announced in 2022, which outlines a roadmap of 29 recommendations to support persons with disabilities.  

The recommendations include a target of 40 per cent of people with disabilities to be employed by 2030, up from 31.4 per cent in 2022.

While some disability advocates said that this goal is both “ambitious” and “achievable”, they added that more needs to be done to increase employers' awareness of disability to better integrate people with disabilities into the working world. 

For example, the 40 per cent employment rate needs to be further unpacked to determine what constitutes being “gainfully employed”.

Referring to the current situation, Ms Cassandra Chiu, president of the Disabled People’s Association, wondered what proportion of people with disabilities who are employed are also underemployed, where they hold jobs that are way below their skill set.  

“The challenges we face as persons with disabilities are to be given real jobs and not created jobs,” said Ms Chiu. 

Beyond increasing the employment rate, disability advocates highlighted other challenges, such as career progression and mobility for persons with disabilities. 

As Singapore marked Labour Day on May 1, TODAY looks at how workplace awareness has increased and how far mindsets have shifted when it comes to hiring persons with disabilities. 

THE PROGRESS SO FAR  

While there is still room for improvement, disability organisations and advocates said that Singapore has made strides in trying to level the playing field for people with disabilities in the workplace.

In Singapore, the prevalence of disability is 2.1 per cent of the student population, which is approximately 460,000. 

For those aged 18 to 49, the prevalence of disability is at 3.4 per cent and it stands at 13.3 per cent of the resident population aged 50 and above.

Resident employment rate for persons with disabilities aged 15 to 64 has increased from 28.2 per cent in the period of 2018 to 2019 when such data was first collected, to 30.1 per cent from 2020 to 2021 and to 31.4 per cent between 2021 to 2022.

From 2018-2019 to 2020-2021, the nominal median gross monthly income from work (including employer Central Provident Fund contributions) of full-time employed persons with disabilities rose by 4.0 per cent from S$2,630 (US$1,940) to S$2,735.  

Mr Nasrul Rohmat, executive director of My Inspiring Journey (MIJ) Hub, said: “Over the past years, there have definitely been more resources from the government and more employers who start to open up and want to employ those with special needs.” 

MIJ Hub is a non-profit organisation that provides educational services for individuals with intellectual disabilities aged three to 30.

Ms Chiu, who is blind, added: “If we look at the last 20 years or so in terms of employment of persons with disabilities, I think there are a lot more schemes currently.” 

She is also the executive director of K9Assistance, a charity promoting the use and acceptance of assistance dogs for people with disabilities in Singapore. 

Ms Chiu remembers graduating with a Masters in Counselling in 2011 and how difficult it was to get a job as a school counsellor in public schools. When she finally got a job with a private firm counselling inmates at Changi Prison, she discovered that her salary was half that of her peers, at S$1,800 before Central Provident Fund deductions. 

She was also not provided with a laptop equipped with accessibility software to do her work, so Ms Chiu had to bring her own to the workplace. 

“I wasn't able to do my job because there were attitudes or mindsets that a blind person could not do the job because it was dangerous or whatever the reason,” she said. 

Mr Winston Wong, 35, who is hard of hearing, recalls how his first job in 2014 at a government body was rather unpleasant when he was tasked with taking minutes of its meetings. 

Mr Wong lip-reads to communicate with people, which prevents him from multitasking and taking landline calls. 

“I was forced to take meeting minutes because I was a fresh graduate, and to be honest, nobody wanted to do it,” he said. 

When Mr Wong said he would not be able to do a good job, his manager insisted and partnered him with a colleague.  

“Most of the meeting minutes were taken by the partner because it was very hard for me. I think my performance review was affected because of this,” said Mr Wong.

SUPPORT FROM GOVERNMENT SCHEMES AND GRANTS 

The situation has changed since both Ms Chiu and Mr Wong entered the workforce.

Ms Chiu cited government schemes such as the Enabling Employment Credit and the Open Door Programme that support employers in hiring people with disabilities as a factor.

The Enabling Employment Credit offsets up to 20 per cent of wages and is capped at S$400 per month for each employee. The Open Door Programme encourages employers to hire, train and integrate persons with disabilities through recruitment, job placement and job support services. 

In 2022, close to 6,600 organisations received the Enabling Employment Credit and collectively employed more than 10,000 employees with disabilities, MSF said in a parliamentary reply in October 2023.

Sharing Ms Chiu’s sentiment, Mr Nasrul noted that many changes have occurred in the past 10 years, and the government has made “a lot of investment” in the disability space. 

“That alone is hope for us, compared to our neighbouring countries, where resources are limited for them,” he said.  

Mr Richard Kuppusamy, 47, who holds a leadership role at a multinational company and uses a wheelchair having being born with spina bifida, said Singapore has also made progress in terms of physical accessibility. 

This includes building infrastructure for those with hearing or visual impairment, or calm rooms for those sensitive to sensory stimuli and overload.  

For example, the Building Control Act was amended in 2020 to require owners of existing non-barrier-free buildings with public access to provide at least basic accessibility features for people with disabilities.  

These features include a wheelchair-accessible entrance, a wheelchair-accessible route at the entrance level and a wheelchair-accessible toilet.

“In Singapore, we’re good with the nuts and bolts of infrastructure,” said Mr Kuppusamy, who is also an adviser to the Disabled People’s Association. “You can spend money to adapt the environment and make it accessible to people.” 

Mr Kuppusamy grew up in the United Kingdom, where he studied and worked as an architect for 16 years. 

He said he had a good experience with his employer when he returned to Singapore to work as an architect in 2012. His then-employer, WOHA Architects, had used a grant to renovate its entire shophouse office to make it wheelchair accessible for Mr Kuppusamy.  

While his story was impressive, he said it was a “total outlier” and not representative of the experience of the disabled community at large. 

“We're pretty good at infrastructure; it's what people see,” said Mr Kuppusamy. “What they don't see is the behaviour and how we treat other people.”  

MANAGERS AND WORKPLACE CULTURE 

Thoroughly burnt out from his first job at the government body, Mr Wong left it after nearly two years and later moved on to become a special needs officer at Nanyang Technological University in 2017 and then at Temasek Polytechnic in 2019, where he remained for five years. 

Working at these two educational institutions to help students with special needs was like “night and day” compared to his first job. His managers were aware of his disability and took active steps to accommodate him. 

Mr Wong remembers how his manager at Temasek Polytechnic would proactively request colleagues to remove their face masks to ensure Mr Wong could lip-read and keep up. 

Similarly, Mr Ian Tang’s manager at the National Trades Union Congress where he works in marketing was proactive in ensuring Mr Tang felt supported in his new working environment. 

Mr Tang had suffered a stroke in 2018 which affected the left side of his body, particularly the use of his left hand and leg. While he has regained some mobility, walking around is very tiring for Mr Tang as his right side does most of the work.  

A motorised wheelchair has greatly helped Mr Tang get from one place to another. 

“Lifts and ramps are good, but they are not enough,” said Mr Tang. He added that if an employer wants to hire a person with disability, everyone from managers to employees has to support this person as part of the company’s culture.

In one instance, his human resource department helped Mr Tang plot his route from his home to his office to ensure it was sheltered. 

He remembers how accommodating and proactive his manager was in asking him if he needed a bigger desk or if he wanted to work closer to the door.

Even though the office had a one-day work-from-home culture, Mr Tang's manager offered an arrangement where he could work from home if needed. 

Apart from doing the job itself, another important activity at work is socialising with colleagues and feeling included within the team. This can be as simple as going out for lunch together or participating in office traditions. 

For Mr Tiong of GIC, the sense of inclusion was clear from the start when his manager told him that it was a tradition for new employees to bring sweet treats. So, on his first day, Mr Tiong brought doughnuts for everyone, which was “a lot of fun”.

“I like to tell this story because the manager is being inclusive. She is not saying, oh, he's disabled, don't let him do it,” said Mr Tiong. “It was something reasonably I could do."

“These are small gestures, but they make you feel included and part of the team.”

Mr Peter Goh, director of human resource and organisation at GIC, said he was spurred to create a disability inclusion initiative at the firm after hearing how a colleague’s two autistic sons had trouble finding employment.

“I realised that being a large company, GIC is able to help promote inclusiveness towards people with disability, particularly in employment settings,” said Mr Goh. 

In 2019, it launched the GIC Enable Programme with a series of initiatives, such as joining the Singapore Business Network on Disability as a member organisation and establishing a partnership with SG Enable. 

“Other than Jonathan Tiong, we are excited to welcome three more full-time hires with disabilities this year, and they will be joining us after finishing up their university studies,” said Mr Goh. 

“All (four) were converted after proving their capability to perform at the high standards expected at GIC during their internship stints,” he added. 

SG ENABLE’S EFFECT ON EMPLOYMENT

For youths hoping to have an easier transition to the working world, internships often provide experience and exposure that will come in handy when they graduate.

SG Enable has been instrumental for disabled individuals like Ms Soh Yu Hui, 22, who secured her last three internships through the agency.

She has Morquio’s syndrome, a progressive genetic disorder that affects one’s bones and spine, organs, as well as physical abilities.  

She is currently fully reliant on a powered wheelchair and has limited mobility, such as raising her arms and opening laptops.  

Ms Soh described the job-hunting process with SG Enable as “simple”, with prospective employers having been filtered to those keen to hire persons with disabilities. 

Ms Soh, who is currently working as a media intern at a global advertising firm, said: “Listing down companies that are open to hiring persons with disabilities has increased my confidence in my job search, and it also ensures that my employers are concerned about my career progression.”

Like Ms Soh, Mr Danial Asri, 24, who is autistic, used SG Enable to obtain his past two internships and enjoyed himself both times.

His first internship was six months as a microbiology lab assistant, and his second was at the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre for three months. 

The University of London student majoring in international relations said his managers readily accommodated his need for clear instructions and a quiet corner for his desk.  

Despite the positive internship experience, Mr Danial – like many young graduates – is both nervous and excited about joining the workforce after getting his degree in August.  

“Naturally, I’m concerned that not all companies will be that inclusive, so I’m a bit anxious about that,” he said. 

Ms Soh feels “quite hopeful” about employment opportunities, especially if work-from-home arrangements are becoming the norm.  

“More emphasis is placed on one’s skill set rather than the disability,” she said. Still, she hopes there will be a day when disabled individuals will not need to rely on SG Enable to look for employment. 

“Job opportunities should be skill-focused and not based on our physical appearance.”

Besides employment support such as vocational assessment and job placement, SG Enable also offers courses to equip disabled individuals with skills.

Through its programmes, SG Enable has placed more than 5,500 persons with disabilities in jobs since 2014, in addition to those who found jobs on their own or with their existing network of support, said Ms Emily Ong, the agency's senior director of employment and lifelong learning.

Ms Ong added: “We ought to move from sympathy to empathy – to see past the disability, focus on abilities, and make inclusion the norm.” 

MAKING REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS MAINSTREAM

A significant challenge that the disabled community still has to grapple with is the lack of awareness about disability in general.

Ms Ong said: “In the workplace, some misconceptions about persons with disabilities are that they require more effort to integrate into the work environment or are less productive.”  

Agreeing, Mr Abhimanyau Pal, chief executive officer of SPD (formerly known as Society of the Physically Disabled), added that some employers may be hesitant to hire persons with disabilities as they are unsure if these individuals are able to perform job tasks as effectively as non-disabled employees.

“Their perceived risk of potential productivity losses or the need for additional training have deterred employers from adopting inclusive practices.”

Mr Shalom Lim, 28, said that while there have been improvements in the last 10 years, social stigma remains a main barrier for people with disabilities in the workplace. 

“There is the issue of marketability and the age-old trope that we are less capable because we will be less productive and therefore undesirable as employees or as candidates,” said Mr Lim, whose last job was a community partnerships executive at K9Assistance.

Mr Lim has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a rare genetic disease characterised by progressive muscle weakness and wasting, as well as ADHD. 

“People are not aware (of the experience of disabled persons) and not accepting, and there is no avenue for persons with disabilities to go through if we are discriminated against.”

Mr Lim added that because there is currently no discrimination law for disability, hiring managers can easily dismiss persons with disabilities as “not a good fit”. 

However, Singapore is planning to introduce Workplace Fairness Legislation, which will give people facing workplace discrimination legal teeth to seek redress at all stages of their employment such as during hiring, promotion and dismissal.

Persons with disabilities interviewed by TODAY said they hope the proposed legislation will help curb workplace discrimination, and also address the need for employers to provide reasonable accommodations, that is, modifications or adjustments that enable disabled individuals to perform their given work tasks. 

Currently, when employers think about accommodations, they immediately get defensive, said Ms Kavita Chandradhas, 38, founder of Undivided, a diversity, equity and inclusion consulting practice focused on neurodiversity, mental health and invisible disabilities at the workplace.

“The first thing employers think of when they hear accommodations, they think it's going to mean a lot of money,” she said. 

“But the reality is that the cost of accommodations for disabled people is actually usually zero or it's very low cost.” 

For example, employees with sensory sensitivity can lie in a dark, quiet room or have flexible working arrangements. 

“If employers empathise with the situation, they will understand, and they will go the extra mile to meet the needs,” said Ms Faraliza Zainal, chairman of MIJ Hub. 

Mr Max Soh, a research and policy manager at the Disabled People’s Association, said that while some employers are well-meaning, there is a “lack of mainstreaming of reasonable accommodation protocols”, and persons with disabilities are afraid to ask for them.  

“Another misconception is that reasonable accommodations are special advantages or special treatment or something that employers should be rewarded for providing, but by definition, reasonable accommodations are essential and necessary modifications for persons with disabilities.”

Mr Soh said that without these reasonable accommodations, the workplace environment would sometimes be “very arduous” or even impossible for disabled individuals to participate in.

Of course, this does not mean that all accommodation requests should be accepted, he added. Instead, at the very least, employers should engage in that conversation with their employees. 

CAREER MOBILITY AND PROGRESSION

While disability advocates welcomed the Enabling Masterplan 2030 and the employment target of 40 per cent, some wondered how gainful employment would be measured.  

Mr Kuppusamy said many people with disabilities are currently working in jobs such as delivery riders or in call centres or the service industry that are not highly paid. They are afraid of losing their jobs and might even be vulnerable to abuse by having to accept unfair work practices.  

As such, ascertaining how Singapore is going to meaningfully attain that 40 per cent employment is important, advocates for persons with disabilities said. 

They added that the issue of career mobility and progression for workers with disabilities also needs to be addressed.

“I've got friends who have entered companies straight out of university, and 20 to 25 years on, they're only earning S$4,000. That's not better than a fresh grad going into work nowadays, which is sad,” said Ms Chiu.

Mr Soh said that anecdotally, disabled individuals under the Place-and-Train Programme are often let go after six to 12 months. Due to a lack of data, it is difficult for him to ascertain the exact retention rates.  

The programme offers funding support to inclusive employers and aims to encourage them to provide job and training opportunities for people with disabilities. For the first six to 12 months, salaries are subsidised up to 90 per cent to support employers.

The programme is funded by MSF and administered by SG Enable.

To ensure more equitable employment opportunities for people with disabilities and to make the workplace more inclusive, a whole-of-society approach is the way forward, said advocates.

“To achieve the 40 per cent target set out in Enabling Masterplan 2030, a 3P approach – people, private, and public sectors – is needed, where different stakeholders play their part and are proactive in improving job opportunities for persons with disabilities,” suggested Mr Pal of SPD. 

For one, given that the government is the biggest employer in the country, said Ms Chiu, “if a quota exists there (civil service), half the battle is won”.

“We will probably be in the 40 per cent or even a little bit more, more than that.” 

Mr Pal added that inculcating the right mindset and building a proper ecosystem, such as inclusive infrastructure and policies, will support inclusive hiring practices.  

Besides encouraging employers to make reasonable accommodations, job crafting is another solution – with employers creating jobs that focus on the strengths of people with disabilities. 

For example, Ms Chiu has crafted the part-time role of community partnerships executive at K9Assistance for Mr Lim, taking into account his limited mobility and neurodivergent needs.  

As an indie filmmaker who casts actors with various disabilities in her films, Ms Reena makes it a point to tailor the job to the actor.

For example, she had an actor with ADHD who had trouble memorising lines, so she told him that for his scenes, he could improvise instead, and she would edit around it. 

Job crafting is especially important in the neurodivergent space. 

Ms Jacelyn Lim, executive director of Autism Resource Centre (Singapore), said: “Jobs must fit the strengths of individuals on the autism spectrum.”

“Like all of us, individuals on the autism spectrum have their strengths, interests, and abilities. 

“They work best in structured environments with clear tasks and deliverables. Employers must be willing to redesign or restructure some work processes, where possible, to leverage their strengths,” Ms Lim said.

Advocates added that with reasonable accommodations codified, employees will be more willing and braver to ask for what they need. 

“I want employers to see the person and not the disability. Look at what a person with disabilities can do and not what they can’t,” said Ms Reena.

“Employers forget something vital. A person with disabilities has many struggles that have built up their character. This makes them resourceful, determined, and hardworking. These are traits you want in your employees.” 

The article was originally published in TODAY.