Speaking during the debate on the royal address, Senator Ras Adiba Radzi hoped that the education ministry and the ministry of national unity could cooperate and introduce this to make it easier for those disabled to communicate with the others.

“We can create a society that is sensitive to the needs of the disabled as well as establish an inclusive community. I hope the national unity minister, Halimah Mohamed Sadique, can spearhead this move,” she said.

The senator also wanted to know the amount distributed to repair and provide infrastructure for disabled students in public and private colleges between 2015 and 2021.

“Funds should be channelled to improve infrastructure such as ramps, toilets as well as to provide sign language interpreter services, vans and learning facilities for disabled students,” she said.

She also called for increased financial aid to be provided to disabled students, and for the Department for Persons with Disabilities to be made a separate agency from the Social Welfare Department.

She said greater efforts should be made to guarantee that disabled students would not be left out of the national education system and to improve facilities provided by the government.

She criticised the education ministry for the lack of any progress on its Zero Reject Policy. A total of 10,200 classes for students with disabilities had been set up in 2019 but “for more than a year now, we parents of children with disabilities have not heard of further efforts involving the implementation of this policy”, she said.