Persons with disabilities (PWD) have been referred to, even up to recently as a “vulnerable group”. PWDs have been the main target group of social welfare planning for years, in general, or as a response to unemployment. The question here is, why are PWDs still “vulnerable”? Shouldn’t past policies or frameworks have guaranteed that this group would not be “exposed to the elements, as they are now? Could it be that current underlying narratives (that PWDs need only to be protected and not empowered) are perhaps the bane of society? Could it also be that these archaic perceptions of Malaysian society are the very things that stunt quality policy-making? Malaysian policy-makers will benefit from a paradigm shift – a change in perspectives, “woke” cognizance and an overall empathy for target communities, especially PWDs.
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