Digital Divide in Singapore - The Visually Handicapped's Situation [Essay Draft 1]

Based on statistics from the World Economic Forum, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, or known as IDA, (2013) 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 is experiencing a lack of ICT in their life due to their disability.

Often, the visually handicapped have difficulties learning the usage of the current IT technology as most technological innovations or products created are simply not designed to cater for them. For example, the commonly used digital innovations such as the Internet are more of visual based products. Therefore, this poses an impossible hurdle for the visually handicapped when learning how to use digital technologies. Inevitably, this leads to the visually handicapped to be not plugged-in and up-to-date in usage of modern technology compared to the rest of the Singaporeans. As a result, a digital divide is formed between the visually handicapped and the able-bodied.

Because of the digital gap between visually handicapped and able-bodied, the visually handicapped will lose out 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, 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 13^th place in the world for “extensively” using “new technology” in enterprises. Hence, knowledge of IT is gradually becoming an essential criterion in Singapore’s working industry.

Unfortunately, as Singapore’s companies shift their operations to the digital platforms, the visually handicapped are losing out since they are not as technologically proficient compared to the able-bodied. This causes them to portray lower marketability in the employment market than the rest of the citizens due to more employers are searching for people that possess necessary IT knowledge in order to easily carry out the company’s digitalized operations without extensive training.

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. (IDA, 2008) Thus, students are able to benefit fully from the “individualized training plan” and acquire the IT skills more easily.

Furthermore, the IA Centre also provides financial assistance. 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.

However, 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. Moreover, 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) Thus, it shows that a significant amount of visually handicapped is still not benefiting from the resources available at the centre.

Therefore, 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.

Furthermore, 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.

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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/

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

World Economic Forum. (2014). Global information technology report 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2014, from http://reports.weforum.org/global-information-technology-report-2014/#=&section=7th-pillar-business-usage