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BARRIER FREE SOCIETY
Gainful Employment for Disabled People
Rohana
Jani
bout the author: Dr Rohana Jani is the
Acting Director and Senior Research Fellow
Aat Ungku Aziz Center for Development
Studies, Universiti of Malaya. She holds a BSc
(Mathematics) from Ohio University, Athens, USA;
MSc in Statistics from West Virginia University, USA are considered to have severe disabilities, which
and a PhD in Statistics from Macquarie University,
Sydney, Australia. She has more than two decades
of teaching experience in mathematics, statistics
and data analysis. Her areas of expertise include
Statistical Data Analysis using Multivariate
Techniques, Quantitative Research Methodology,
Market Research, and Statistical Package for
the Social Sciences (SPSS) applications. Some of
her research include the Migration of Human
Capital (Brain-Drain); Capacity Building Among
Youths: Development of A Smoke-Free Generation
Towards Smoke-Free Malaysia 2045; The Financial
Adequacy and Well-Being of University Malaya
Students; and various topics relating to the impact
of the COVID-19 pandemic. She is also passionate
about cooking and trying out new recipes.
The topic of employment has been a constant
contention among several key players that have
stormed the world both in good and bad times.
These key players predominantly consist of
policymakers, politicians, academicians, industry
players, and the general public, who speak of
the rights of employment of everyone else but
seldom address the status of a particular group
of people – the People with Disabilities (PWDs).
It is very difficult to secure employment for PWDs
in comparison with those labelled by society
as ordinary people or those who do not have
disabilities.
In 2011, The World Health Organization
and the World Bank estimated that more than
1,000,000,000 people of the world’s population
are living with disabilities, whether the person
acknowledges the fact or otherwise. This is
equivalent to approximately 15% of the world’s
population, which by no means is considered
minuscule. 2% to 4% of the world’s population
hinders them from fully participating in society. It
should be the primary focus of every government
to address this issue rather than treating it as an
isolated matter.
It is estimated that 50% to 70% of PWDs are
unemployed in industrialised countries. These
figures escalate to approximately 80% to 90%
in developing countries as reported by The
Washington Times in 2005. In comparison, the
official unemployment rate for PWDs of working
age is at least twice as high as those without
disabilities. This resonates with the grieving voice
of the PWDs’ who appeal for affirmative actions
from the government to enable them to be part of
the employment sector that has ostracised them.
On the other hand, PWDs who managed to
secure employment lamented that they would
have to be content working menial jobs. Some
researchers claimed that those with disabilities are
much more likely to have substandard jobs than
those without disabilities, and this inevitably has
repercussions on their lives.
This scene is visualised in the context of
Malaysia, like most countries in the world, which
has seen the number of PWDs increasing. As of
2018, approximately 453,258 registered PWDs
were reported by the Department of Social Welfare
Malaysia (DSWM) and the Department of Statistics
Malaysia (DOSM). From this figure, 35.2% of PWDs
were found to be in the physical disability category,
followed by the learning disability category and
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