Deputy housing and local government minister Ismail Abd Muttalib said the ministry was responsible for ensuring that developers not only abide by conditions under the Persons with Disabilities Act 2008 (Act 685), but also the housing construction industry standards.

“The local authorities must look into the details of the PwD’s needs and ensure that approvals are not given if the housing plans do not fulfil the requirements.

“We have a clear set of rules, and will enforce them if developers fail to fulfil the conditions,” he said during the question-and-answer session at the Dewan Negara here today.

He was responding to a supplementary question from Ras Adiba Radzi who wanted to know what action would be taken against developers who fail to follow specifications on the accessibility features for the disabled.

In reply to Ras Adiba’s original question on the issue of home ownership among the disabled community, Ismail said it was the ministry’s responsibility to ensure that liveable housing is available to all groups, including the disabled.

He said the 2019 national housing standards issued by the Malaysian Construction Industry Development Board outlined the Universal Design as a guideline for the design of buildings and support facilities component, in consideration of the elderly, children and disabled groups.

According to him, for PwDs, the standards also cover disabled-friendly parking lots, walkways, elevators, toilets and access to switches or plugs.

“The ministry ensures that no group, including the disabled, is left behind when it comes to housing. It has been set that 1% of the total People’s Housing Programme (PPR) units is allocated to the disabled in the B40 group.

“As of Aug 31, 2021, there are 154 PPR projects providing 97,196 housing units nationwide and of the total, 936 units have been allocated for the disabled and 809 units (86.4%) are already occupied,” he said.