Based on statistics from the World Economic Forum, the
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (2013), also known as IDA, has
announced that “For the fourth year running, Singapore has placed second in the
world in harnessing the power of infocomm technology (ICT) to boost
productivity and increase social development.” This also means that a
significant amount of the population is involved in using technology in their
everyday life. However, despite the high ranking achieved, there are certain
minority groups in Singapore who do not enjoy the privilege of being connected
to the digital world. For example, the visually handicapped are experiencing a
lack of ICT in their life due to their disability.
According to Wood (2012), “Today’s digital environment
has a lot to offer blind computer users, but the Web remains a minefield of
frustration.” This is because most technological innovations or products
created are simply not designed in consideration of the visually handicapped.
For example, commonly used digital innovations such as Internet are more of
visual based products. Therefore, it is often a challenging task for the
visually handicapped to learn the usage of digital technologies. Inevitably,
this leads to the visually handicapped to be not as plugged-in to the digital
world as compared to the rest of the Singaporeans. As a result, a digital
divide is formed between the visually handicapped and the able-bodied.
Unfortunately, because of the digital gap, the visually handicapped are losing
against the able-bodied in terms of marketability in the employment market as
increasing Singaporean employers are expecting their potential employees to
possess essential IT knowledge, so the IDA
should strive to reach out to more of the visually handicapped population
by widely advertising Singapore’s Infocomm Accessibility Centre (IA Centre), a
IT training centre customized for the disabled, allowing the visually
handicapped to recognize that there are resources available to train them in
effectively using technology despite their disabilities.
As technologies advance rapidly in modern time, an
increasing amount of businesses is looking into using these digital
technologies to further enhance their efficiency and productivity. This trend
is also fervently followed by businesses in Singapore. In fact, according to
the World Economic Forum (2014), Singapore is ranked 13th place in the world
for “extensively” using “new technology” in enterprises. In light of this
situation, it can be seen that knowledge of IT is gradually becoming an
essential criterion in Singapore’s working industry. New Horizons (2011), an IT
training company in Singapore, has also mentioned that being “technologically
adept” does improve chances of being employed by companies.
Recognizing the need to address the issue of lower
marketability in visually handicapped due to low proficiency in technology,
IDA, in partnership with the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and
Sports, Microsoft Singapore and the Society for the Physically Disabled,
established the IA Centre in 2008. The IA centre’s aim is to provide essential
IT training for the disabled, such as the visually handicapped, to narrow down
the digital divide. According to IDA (2008), the centre also aims “to equip
disabled people with market-relevant skills to enhance their employability.”
One unique selling point of the IA centre is that
each course is “customized” to suit the varying “needs” of the disabled
students (IDA, 2008). This is because the IA Centre is catered to people with
different disabilities. Before the students embark on any course, the centre
will conduct “personal assessment and appraisal” of the students so that they
can design an “individualized training plan” based on the results of the
evaluation to suit each student’s capabilities (IDA, 2008). This allows
students to benefit fully from the course and acquire the IT skills more
easily.
The IA Centre also provides financial assistance to
students. Thus, the visually handicapped need not worry about course fees and
are able to take a variety of customized courses to increase their
employability in the market.
Regrettably, not many people know about the centre’s
existence. According to the IA Centre (n.d.), up till 2012, out of the
available 5800 training slots, IA Centre had only trained 1500 individuals with
disabilities. This not only includes the visually handicapped but also
Singaporeans with varying disabilities. In contrast, there are approximately
3332 visually handicapped people in 2013 in Singapore (Singapore Association of
the Visually Handicapped, 2014). Therefore, this means that a significant
amount of visually handicapped is still not benefiting from the resources
available at the centre.
In order to tackle this issue, IDA should further
advertise the benefits of attending courses in IA Centre for the visually
handicapped. For example, they can cooperate with the Singapore Association of
the Visually Handicapped, a welfare association for the visually handicapped,
so that more visually handicapped knows about the centre’s existence and
benefits of attending the centre. This will in turn induce more visually
handicapped to sign up with IA Centre’s courses to improve their employability
in the market.
Moreover, IDA should seek to re-design the IA Centre
website to include other languages used in Singapore, such as Mandarin, Malay
and Tamil. This is to aid the non-English speaking families to be able to find
out more information about the IA Centre and in turn persuade them to sign up
with the centre to gain essential IT skills.
In conclusion, it is essential for the visually
handicapped to acquire essential IT knowledge to survive in today’s working
society. However, to do so, extensive support is needed from the Singapore
government and welfare association to reach out to the visually handicapped
population and teach them the required IT skills so as to narrow the digital
gap.
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References
Infocomm Accessbility Centre. (n.d.). Our achievements. Retrieved September
30, 2014, from
http://www.iacentre.org.sg/infocomm-accessibility-centre/our-achievements/
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore. (2013). Singapore no.2 in WEF ranking. Retrieved
September 30, 2014, from http://www.ida.gov.sg/blog/insg/in-the-news/singapore-no-2-in-wef-ranking/
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore. (2008). Singapore opens first pan-disability IT
training centre. Retrieved September 30, 2014, from
http://www.ida.gov.sg/blog/insg/in-the-news/singapore-opens-first-pan-disability-it-training-centre/
New
Horizons. (2011). The Importance Of IT
Training Courses Singapore Organizations Should Know. Retrieved October 02,
2014, from
http://www.newhorizons.com.sg/IT-training/it-training-courses-singapore.html
Singapore
Association of the Visually Handicapped. (2014). Annual report 2013/2014. Retrieved September 30, 2014, from
http://www.savh.org.sg/publications/annual_reports/2013-14.pdf
Wood,
L. (2012). Blind and online: Progress,
not perfection, for visually impaired tech users. Retrieved October 02,
2014 from
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2491911/internet/blind-and-online--progress--not-perfection--for-visually-impaired-tech-users.html
World
Economic Forum. (2014). Global
information technology report 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2014, from http://reports.weforum.org/global-information-technology-report-2014/#=§ion=7th-pillar-business-usage