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Inclusiveness in jobs, education remains myth for disabled
Salsabila, 18, who is visually impaired, has to wait for another year after being denied entry by the college of her dreams
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span>Salsabila, 18, who is visually impaired, has to wait for another year after being denied entry by the college of her dreams. Salsa, her nickname, is not used to the computer-based college entrance test, which she found too hard for her as a disabled person.
The story of her life is featured in the Citra Award-nominated short documentary, Sejauh Kumelangkah (How Far I’ll Go), directed by Ucu Agustine. The movie was screened at Grand Indonesia in Central Jakarta on Monday to celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which falls on Dec. 3.
The movie also follows the life of Salsabila’s childhood friend, Andrea — familiarly known as Dea — in the United States. Andrea, who is also visually impaired, receives a proper educational medium for her to learn subjects at public school.
Unlike Dea, Salsa has to live in a dormitory for disabled people and learn how to manage everything herself. During high school, she could not even tell the shapes of circles, triangles, rectangles and squares as there was no way for her to learn geometry. Her teachers were out of reach as they had no abilities in reading Braille.
On the other hand, Bima Kurniawan, 33, a French teacher at SMA 68 state senior high school in Jakarta, struggles with an unfriendly environment for visually impaired individuals like him.
“Whenever I go to other schools, I am always terrified. Fellow teachers there are mostly not friendly,” he said.
Bima suffered glaucoma in his right eye in 2011. His left eye was affected five years later and that made him entirely visually impaired.
He added that working as a teacher with a disability was hard for him as the teaching modules and facilities are adjusted to regular standards.
Bima who has been working as a nonpermanent teacher for eight years, also said that the civil servant entrance for teachers was still not friendly for visually or hearing impaired candidates.
Ironically, Law No. 18/2016 on disabilities does not guarantee automatic entry into learning institutions and employment.
The 2 percent quota for disabled in the public civil servant is still being diversified into certain categories.
The Defense Ministry, the Communications and Information Ministry and the Industry Ministry, for example, are not open for people in wheelchairs.
The Defense Ministry only accepts disabled candidates who can see, talk and hear properly.
Such distinctive requirements are definitely an obstacle that prevents the disabled from entering government offices.
However, not all of the ministries impose such discriminatory policies on recruitment. The Education and Culture Ministry, for example, has been providing training for both disabled and nondisabled teachers.
“The ministry has programs to educate teachers about disabilities. However, such programs are not yet largely available to society,” the ministry’s special needs education director, Sanusi, told The Jakarta Post.
Although admitting that accessibility for disabled people to education and employment is still below expectation, Sanusi claimed that the government had been more inclusive of them, as can be seen from the appointment of Angkie Yudistia, a young deaf entrepreneur, to the presidential staff.
Hadiyanti Ramadhani, the deputy chairwoman of the Indonesian Association of Visually Impaired People (Pertuni), on the contrary, said the government still needed to be taught about rights of the disabled.
As a person with low vision, Hadiyanti, remembered how she struggled to find a job in the past. She also regretted the persistent perception that disabled people could not perform professional work as well as nondisabled people.
“More employers are now open to people with disabilities, but the work opportunities are still limited to jobs such as operators at a call center or a communications department of an office,” Hadiyanti, who now works as a digital content writer at a private company in Jakarta, said. (trn)
