Sabah committed to improving development of PwD, visually impaired persons

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government is committed to helping persons with disabilities (PwD) in the state, including the visually impaired, to ensure that the group is not marginalised in all aspects, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor said.

He said there were 43,214 PwD, 3,597 of whom were visually impaired, registered with the Sabah General Welfare Services Department (JPKA) as of Dec 29 last year.

For that, Hajiji called on parents and families to register their PwD or visually impaired family members to Sabah JPKA to enable them to get all the assistance they need to be able to live independently for themselves and their families.

"It is also to enable the government to plan the provision of better facilities and services that suit their needs. There are many privileges for the registered PWDs, including assistance and benefit channels specifically for them."

Hajiji said this in his speech at the opening of the state-level World Braille Day celebration here today. The speech text was read out by Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister Datuk Abidin Madingkir.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister said that World Braille Day was celebrated to give awareness and exposure to the community of the importance of braille as a medium of communication in the recognition of human rights for the visually impaired.

He said the use of braille has successfully helped the visually impaired to come out of the cocoon of not being able to read, thus becoming an important element in improving their quality of life and empowering their careers.

"Various initiatives are being implemented by the government to ensure equal rights for this group, among which is sponsorship for the visually impaired to participate in the entrepreneurship programmes, such as the Malaysia Massage Therapy Skills Certificate Level 3 organised by the Malaysian Visually Impaired Entrepreneur Development Charity Organisation to help the group become successful and independent entrepreneurs.

"Sabah Association for the Blind also plays an important role in providing services including information related to employment opportunities for the visually impaired," he said, adding that the association now has three branches operating in Sandakan, Keningau and Tawau.

Hajiji also expressed his pride as the Sabah State Library has become the first in Malaysia to provide services and facilities for the visually impaired as a commitment to further help and support the group.

"This includes organising Tactile Workshop to produce special tactile books or workshops to prepare story books in braille for the visually impaired, in addition to providing more collections of books in the form of braille text," he said.

-- BERNAMA