All I Want For International Day Of Persons With Disabilities

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There have been several songs on the theme “All I want for Christmas…”. The one that has stuck in my memory is a child singing “all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth”. A simple but vital request.
As I reflect on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which is today, I ask myself: “What does the disability community, their care partners and civil society want from the government and society?”
The day is less about celebration and more about demanding urgent, tangible, long-overdue action and accountability from the authorities.
These actions and changes are consolidated under the principle of moving from tokenistic gestures, which is a charity model, to the full realisation of rights, a rights-based model, in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which Malaysia ratified in 2010.
The basic, key essentials - simple but vital requests - we are hoping for include:
Legal reform and enforcement
We need to amend Article 8(2) of the Federal Constitution to explicitly include “disability”, thereby providing legal protection for persons with disabilities against discrimination.
We need to urgently amend the Persons with Disabilities Act 2008 with full alignment with the CRPD. This must include strong, enforceable penalty clauses against individuals, businesses, and government bodies that violate the rights of disabled persons.
The government needs to sign and ratify the Optional Protocol to the CRPD, which would allow individuals to submit complaints of human rights violations directly to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, holding the government internationally accountable.
Inclusive education and desegregation
We must stop the trend of funding and building more segregated (special-needs-only) or integrated education facilities as seen in the past few budgets and move to true inclusion in mainstream settings, in line with the CRPD.
We need to mandate and fund comprehensive training for all teachers, not just special education teachers, in universal design for learning, curriculum modification and individualised support. These changes will benefit all children, not just those who are disabled. 
Employment and economic empowerment
We need a revamping of recruitment, training, placement and support systems in the public and private sectors to ensure disabled persons are not discriminated against in hiring or promotion.
More than three decades of failure by the government to achieve a tiny one percent disabled persons employment quota in the public sector must end.
We need to invest significantly in disability-inclusive training and building sustainable employment support programmes to support inclusion and retention of disabled persons in both public and private sector jobs.
ADSThe job coach training programmes require a serious revamp to make them functional.
Accessibility - physical, digital, and transport
We need legally mandated access for persons with disabilities to all buildings and transport facilities.
All the structural obstacles in the built environment that restrict mobility and access must be systematically removed. All new buildings must be accessible by design and not as an afterthought. Disabled-friendly restrooms are critical.
These improvements will benefit all of society, especially the elderly. It is critical that the government be the one advocating for and driving this instead of relying solely on disabled persons and civil society.
It is also embarrassing that no single government website is fully accessible to disabled persons and has not met the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1).
It is critical that all government websites, apps, and services are built using universal design principles and meet international WCAG standards to prevent digital and information exclusion.
We call on the government to stop treating disability as a welfare or charity issue and start treating it as a human rights, legislative, and enforcement priority.
All MPs should advocate alongside disabled persons in their constituency and ensure these basic needs and rights are advocated for and realised in Parliament.
With at least 40 percent of the population being people with disabilities or their care partners, and with an ageing society, it is time that the government work concertedly to meet their basic needs, and not as an afterthought. - Mkini
DR AMAR-SINGH HSS is a consultant paediatrician and a child-disability activist.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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