This is better than giving cash handouts, says National Council for the Blind Malaysia executive director Moses Choo.

The tools, he explained are specialised hardware for the disabled and include the likes of equipment such as writing equipment for the blind or devices which can turn text into audio.

Speaking to FMT, Choo said presently, the government gave cash assistance to the disabled, but this process was tedious as a lot of resources would be put into determining who qualified for assistance.

At the moment, he said, only disabled people who earned below RM1,200 a month qualified for a RM300 allowance.

He said if the government gave the disabled the right tools to lead a normal life, it would help ensure aid was better targeted and reduce the need for cash handouts.

“This will also reduce the opportunity for abuse and malpractice. Tools for the disabled are expensive. Hence, it is difficult for the disabled to purchase them.”

Choo said the government could consider emulating initiatives by countries such as the United States and Japan, where the government would provide working tools for blind people who were successful in landing a job.

“We hope the government can consider doing something similar. We need the right tools to move forward and become self-sustainable,” he said, adding with technology, the blind did not even need Braille.

On the issue of getting more disabled people to join the workforce, Choo said however that he was not in favour of quotas.

Instead, he said it would be better if all companies considered disabled people when sourcing for staff.

He also said the government should change how it approached the issue of disability, particularly when it came to the declaration of a person’s disability status.

At present, he said, it was not mandatory for disabled people to declare their disabilities and this presented a number of issues.

“If we do not make it mandatory for people to be declared ‘disabled’, then we will never actually know how many disabled people we have in the country and this would make it more difficult to maximise aid efforts.”

He said there was also the issue of people who did not want to declare their disability out of fear that they would be restricted from certain activities like driving.

“So we might have situations where people go blind or are going blind but refuse to declare their disability and end up causing accidents on the road.”

Choo said the government should reach out to NGOs which serve the disabled to improve policies related to disabilities.

Sadly, he said, in Malaysia, issues related to disabilities often take a back seat to issues of race and religion.