What Employers Should Know About Disability Equality Training

The president of OKU Sentral, Senator Datuk Ras Adiba Radzi, advised employers to attend Disability Equality Training (DET) workshops to encourage a broader knowledge and understanding of people with disabilities. 

She said DET would help create a society and environment sensitive to the group’s needs, change people’s perceptions of people with disabilities, and help plan the support they could provide for them. 

According to her, OKU Sentral has a team that offers DET where people with disabilities themselves will teach on their disabilities, needs, and how employers can provide facilities for them. 

She added that the effort is crucial to ensure that all people with disabilities have the same rights, just like any other Malaysians. 

 

Viral incident highlights struggles of people with disabilities

She commented on a viral video that showed a deaf woman voicing her disappointment after being denied her right to order food at a fast-food restaurant’s drive-through. 

Ras Adiba said these incidents had been happening worldwide for a long time, including in developed countries where awareness of the needs and rights of people with disabilities is still low. 

Hence, she hoped that awareness towards people with disabilities would be taught since kindergarten to ensure the future generations will better understand and respect them.

She said that employers must understand that people with disabilities also contribute to the economy, and as customers, they should be treated equally. 

 

Disability Equality Training (DET)

DET is a participatory learning programme that focuses on positive outcomes.

Participants are encouraged to think about the challenges disabled people face in society and challenge stereotypes, myths, and misconceptions regarding disability. As a result, they are motivated to take proactive steps to remove obstacles in their workplaces, organisations, and society.

DET is open to all. It gives non-disabled people a logical explanation of disability and encourages them to become agents of change. It is a method that enables people with disabilities to gain self-empowerment by changing their negative perceptions of their impairments and taking leadership roles.
 

What does DET offer?

DET can be used effectively by companies with disabled employees or plan to hire disabled persons to make their workplace more inclusive. Front-line workers in service-oriented businesses can benefit from learning how to interact with and support disabled customers safely and professionally.

DET workshop skills and knowledge have been successfully implemented in making establishments inclusive for both employees and customers.

For more information, please visit OKU Sentral on Facebook.

 

Source: The Star