By, Fahirah Nurdini Binti Mohd Yazil Elham
The Special Needs Community is often referred to as those with disabilities. Basic knowledge about disability is that there are many types such as physical disability, vision impairment, hearing impairment and many more. To support these disabilities, technology would often be used to overcome them such as those with hearing impairments will use hearing aids recommended by their doctors to help them in class.
Next, disabilities also can seem visible and non-visible. For example, disabilities that can be seen are physical disability and vision impairment. For non-visible disabilities that cannot be seen by the naked eye are learning disability and mental disability. Moreover, some have developed it since birth and some while growing up.
Challenges of the stigma
The special needs community is often ignored by society and is surrounded by a stigma that they lack the capabilities to work and cannot function well as other humans. It also affects the family members of those with neurodivergent children who are often frowned upon. There is also the lack of accessibility to infrastructure and transportation for them, it creates barriers for them to learn independently and explore around them. This shows that our society and country has not achieved sustainable development goal number 10 which is to reduce inequalities.
Solutions to overcoming the stigma
Firstly,The Ministry of Higher Education should establish a Disability Services Unit in each university, it will allow the special needs community to get the chance to further their education. It can also help them improve their social skills while improving university students’ sympathy and empathy development.
Secondly, The Ministry of Higher Education could also conduct trainings for university student leaders regarding Disability Equality Training and Exclusive Leadership (DETAIL). It is to raise awareness and train them regarding the challenges and strategies to help students with disabilities on campus. From this, they will also get the opportunity to communicate with the special needs community and get new insights to help and support them.
Lastly, the government could also provide more tactile and ramps around the city to improve accessibility for the special needs community. The government should also implement audio descriptions for the blind and visually impaired in the entertainment industry. It could also improve engagement among citizens with the special needs community.***
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