Based on statistics from the World Economic Forum, 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 is experiencing a lack of ICT in
their life due to their disability.
According to Wood (2012), he mentions that “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 is 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, 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. Hence, 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.
Thus, 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 as 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 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.
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.
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.
_________________________________________________________________________________
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
<983 words excluding references>
0 comments:
Post a Comment