Training programme helps the disabled find jobs

WHEELCHAIR-BOUND Lee Pei Ling used to sit at home and play computer games because the challenge of finding a job she could do seemed impossible.

But the 30-year-old is now gainfully employed as a graphic designer after undergoing a programme by the Infocomm Accessibility Centre. The centre is managed by the Society for the Physically Disabled.

The IT Apprenticeship Programme (ITAP) provides training and internships in corporate services, multimedia or music and video production for people with disabilities.

The programme, which started about a year ago, has 34 enrollees. Twenty others have completed the course and received their certificates recently at a ceremony. Of them, seven have found jobs.

Ms Lee, who became wheelchair-bound at age 18 after a failed operation, started on ITAP's multimedia programme last year. Since last December, she has worked from home for an education consultancy company, producing designs for items such as posters and murals.

'Every piece of work that is accepted makes me happy. It's a sense of satisfaction,' she said.

Another graduate who has found a job is Mr Desmond Hou, 53, who lost a leg to bone cancer in 1995 and was retrenched in 2007. He is the main breadwinner of the family with two school-age children.

He studied corporate services earlier this year and found a job as a part-time telebet assistant.

'It helped a lot. I was basically very scared of the computer but after ITAP, I got to know better how the computer works,' he said.

Employment for the disabled has been given a push in recent years due to greater awareness and government support such as the Open Door Fund, said Dr Ow Chee Chung, executive director of the Society for the Physically Disabled.

The fund was launched in May 2007 to disburse grants to encourage employers to redesign jobs, modify workplaces and train the disabled.

One such employer is Mr Alvin Nathan, 45, director of Eureka Call Centre Systems. He has hired eight visually impaired or physically handicapped staff and finds that some of them make more calls than regular telemarketers.

At the recent ceremony, three scholarship awards, funded by Microsoft, were also given for the first time. The awards were given to students with disabilities who are studying IT-related courses in local universities and polytechnics.