SINGAPORE (Aug 23): Social entrepreneur Ken Chua has one career goal: to become irrelevant. His current mission is to change the way Singapore — from policymakers to corporate do-gooders to the man in the street — sees people who live with disabilities.
Chua, 28, is founder and director of (these)abilities, a company that designs assistive products and provides consulting services to companies that want to give back to the disabled community. His company designed a keyguard for people who have muscular weakness, tremors, athetosis or poor motor skills. The company also designed a device called the Plug-N-Play Safety System, which allows public buses to carry more than one wheelchair user at a time. Chua graduated from the Singapore University of Technology and Design with an undergraduate degree in design engineering.
In Chua’s view, much of the assistance provided to the disabled community today is driven more by sympathy rather than empathy. As a result, this has translated into a less impactful outcome and drawn backlash from the disabled community, he says.
He cites, for example, the President’s Star Charity, an event aired on national TV. Beneficiaries of the annual community outreach and fundraising campaign are selected every year by the President’s Office. “If you go back to 2014 and 2015, [the programme] makes you cry to donate $5,” says Chua. “[As] a person with disabilities [PwD], you watch it — it’s like ‘What the hell? It’s not so bad to be me, you know?’”
To be sure, Singapore already has extensive initiatives to help people living with disabilities. For example, there are accessibility features in all MRT stations, such as lifts, ramps and barrier-free routes. Some 500 pedestrian crossings in housing estates across the country are under the so-called Green Man + scheme, which gives people a longer time to cross the road.
The government has also channelled its efforts through SG Enable, an agency under the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF). As part of its mandate, SG Enable administers government grants and support to PwDs and their caregivers. It also helps with employability and employment options, in addition to rallying stakeholder support in enabling PwDs to live fulfilled lives. Companies, as part of their corporate social responsibility, have also organised charity events to raise funds for the disabled community. Yet, are these efforts enough to make the community feel included in society?
Indeed, the city state’s planners and policymakers are recognising that the issue of building an inclusive society is becoming more pertinent, but it has some way to go. For one, while some estimates indicate that the disabled community comprises 3% of the local population, there are no official figures or information on them.
In 2017, MSF had indicated that it would conduct a census that would include PwDs to be released in 2020. The ministry says it will work with the Department of Statistics to determine the number of PwDs in Singapore and the type of disabilities that they have.
Still, most endeavours have been a result of sympathy, and Chua argues that society needs to be more empathetic instead. For instance, a company may take a group of wheelchair users to the zoo. “It doesn’t make sense unless the company owns the zoo. So, these companies just want to do something perceivably good for the year to check it off their list. They don’t think of how they can use their position of power or influence to help sow seeds of inclusive change, especially if it takes [a long time] to reap [the rewards],” he says.
Empathy, on the other hand, involves putting oneself into the shoes of another, and walking a mile in them. It is seeing things from the other’s perspective, which leads to positive action.
“The scary part is that there are resources pouring in from the government and companies, and they are willing to part with financial resources. But they are placing it in the wrong places and wrong ways.”
Empowering PwDs
So, how can society better serve the disabled community? For a start, the government should take an empathetic rather than sympathetic stance. The President’s Star Charity has started to reflect this change over the last one to two years, albeit slowly. Chua says the storyline is now more positive, depicting how PwDs are overcoming their daily struggles.
“If it were empathetic, with the view of how things can be better, I think they would get more bang for their buck,” he says. “The litmus test, especially in the case of the government, is to see the messaging every year: Are they starting to sell sob stories or empowering ones?”
Chua is also calling for a stronger overlap or cohesiveness between Singapore’s push to become a smart nation and cultivate an inclusive society. Currently, both national narratives are “not one and the same”, which puzzles him and has caused people in the social service to fail to understand how to use technology well. Conversely, people in the technology space do not understand social needs well enough to create specific applications.
At the same time, Singapore has spent top dollar in its pursuit of a smart nation, but the output is not commensurate with the results, says Chua. “Is there a smarter way to spend? To me, being inclusive is always about the multiplier effect. It’s just that it’s not instantly gratifying… But if you have patience, you will reap the rewards,” he says.
On the corporate front, companies should start to view the disabled community as not merely an opportunity to conduct CSR-related activities but also a stakeholder, to find mutual opportunities that benefit everyone.
Case in point is the word prediction software that can be found on instant messaging platforms and emails. Chua says this innovation was originally developed for people with limited upper limb mobility, who could not type fast enough. Today, word prediction has become useful for other purposes, particularly speed. Ordinary people are using this function to get things done faster.
Another example appears to be the multi-stop ride function in ride-hailing app Grab. Chua says he had suggested that Grab develop this function to enable deaf passengers to make an additional stop without having to communicate verbally to the driver. While Grab has not publicly said this to be the rationale behind the multi-stop function, it has become useful for other purposes, such as for passengers who share a ride to separate destinations. “We want to point out that many technologies today may not have existed without the involvement of PwDs,” he says. “It benefits everyone.”
Bridging corporates and PwDs
Chua says (these)abilities wants to help companies engage better with the disabled community. This does not mean that the company seeks to reinvent the wheel, but it wants to enhance existing engagements that companies have with the disabled community. For example, if a company is planning to build a blind-friendly app, (these)abilities will offer its services to help develop it, he says. (these)abilities also wants to help build channels of feedback between companies and the disabled community, he adds.
Chua says this is the market gap that (these)abilities is happy to plug. He notes that, while most MNCs in the West have an accessibility department, headed by a chief accessibility officer, few companies in Southeast Asia have one. Chua believes, however, that they will in time.
“Then my job will be done. As a social entrepreneur, the ultimate aim is [to] do my job so well that I become irrelevant. Then, I find something else to do,” he says. For now, there is much to be done. In particular, products, services and environments need to become inclusive and be offered or developed in a “smart way”, he says.
For instance, (these)abilities collaborated with Frasers Property to develop more inclusive spaces in malls. In April, the mall owner — supported by (these)abilities — organised a three-week hackathon called Inclusive Spaces to generate ideas to improve accessibility for PwDs. Nine teams, comprising tertiary students and PwDs, took part in the event.
Chua considers the hackathon a success because it helped build stronger bridges between the corporates and disabled community. “It’s about bringing PwDs to Frasers [and] telling them that the company wants to engage them in a different way, not as people who give suggestions, but to collaborate so that there is a sense of ownership,” he says.
Such a collaboration is likely to be mutually beneficial in the future. “If you can make the experience more enjoyable for PwDs, you are going to get very loyal customers coming back, because not many other companies are doing this. Every weekend, the PwD is going to come with his family. Your merchants are going to get the spending dollar,” he adds.
Chua says (these)abilities wants to collaborate with other industry leaders to help create more demand for inclusive products, services and environments. “Since they are industry leaders, the rest will follow. That is our strategy.”
