HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THE ASIAN & PACIFIC DECADE (1993-2002) FOR THE DISABLED?

DO YOU KNOW ACTION TARGETS HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED BY UNESCAP & ENDORSED BY MALAYSIA?

 
Here they are, by the year………………

1995

• Translate Agenda for Action into national and local languages
• Incorporate barrier-free features as a standard requirement in all new construction and renovation designs and plans
• Include barrier-free features in all mass transport systems which are to be built
• Make external built environments accessible
• Include barrier-free design in the training curricula of architects, urban planners and engineers

 
1996

• Establish a national co-ordination committee (NCC) on disability
• Establish a NCC executive committee to facilitate NCC functioning
• Formulate a national plan of action
• Prioritise in the national plan of action participation of poor persons with disabilities in all poverty alleviation programmes and projects
• Include disability issues in information and media policies, provide time and space for disability concerns, and prohibit negative and inaccurate images of persons with disabilities through performances
• Set up a mechanism for phased and on-going identification of new employment opportunities and training

 
1997

• Identify factors, including gender-sensitive demographic date, associated with the five most prevalent preventable causes of disability
• Include persons with disabilities and families as active participants in CBR
• Convene a CBR conference to discuss a national CBR strategy
• Incorporate access provisions in building by-laws
• Include girls and boys, and women and men with disabilities in Education for All policies, plans and programmes
• Introduce early intervention programmes for children with disabilities in rural and urban areas
• Include special education and children with special needs in regular teacher training curricula
• Promote secondary school teaching of science and technical skills to students with disabilities, including blind students
• Promote integration of persons with disabilities into mainstream vocational training schemes
• Formulate government policy to place and promote persons with disabilities in the public sector
• Establish annual gender-equitable training and job placement targets for joint action by ministries and employers' and workers' organisations
• Introduce a national scheme for giving soft loans and support services for marketing to low-income persons with disabilities

 
1998

• Campaign to prevent the five most prevalent preventable causes of disability
• Develop a national CBR strategy with a special programme focus on rural and slum communities
• Include men and women with disabilities in CBR training
• Co-ordinate all government and NGO rehabilitation services as a basis for CBR programme support
• Establish a national forum of self-help organisations of persons with disabilities to include rural organisations, and marginalized groups
• Develop self-help organisations of diverse disability groups, which collaborate actively with rural and urban NGOs
• Put in place NCC mechanisms which increase consultations between organisations of persons with disabilities and diverse ministries
• Establish a national policy to support organisations of persons with disabilities
• Exempt from customs duties vehicles, assistive devices, equipment and materials, to facilitate the daily living of people with disabilities
• Provide tax benefits to persons with disabilities, manufacturers of indigenous assistive devices an employers of disabled persons
• Establish a national resource centre
• Initiate a national sample survey
• Establish a monitoring mechanism to assess public awareness campaigns and strategies
• Make available reading material in appropriate formats

 
1999

• Develop and strengthen curricula and support services for full participation in regular pre-vocational and vocational training programmes
• Establish production centres that employ people with extensive disabilities and those who require a supportive environment Establish national criteria and a subsidy scheme to provide assistive devices and repair/maintenance services
• Exempt customs and other duties on the import of assistive devices, components, materials and equipment for their production, repair and maintenance
• Simplify customs clearance procedures for the import and export of assistive devices, components, materials and equipment for their production, repair and maintenance
• Increase availability of assistive devices, and repair/maintenance devices
• Introduce government tax incentive and subsidy schemes to encourage NGOs and private entrepreneurs in indigenous production and servicing of assistive devices
• Train persons with disabilities, including women, as trainers in the leadership and management of self-help organisations

 
2000

• Strengthen the NCC as a permanent statutory body
• Amend laws to include enabling provisions to give equal legal protection to persons with disabilities, and repeal restrictive and/or discriminatory provisions

 
2002

• Exclude from all educational and functional literacy materials contents that are derogatory towards persons with disabilities and include in those materials illustrations and references supportive of the integration of persons with disabilities into everyday life
• Establish standardised indigenous sign languages and certification of sign language interpreters
• Reduce the drop-out rate of children with disabilities by at least 50 per cent
• Achieve full participation of persons with disabilities in all assistance schemes to engage in informal income-generation and self-employment
• Provide appropriate training and employment opportunities for people with extensive disabilities
• Eliminate iodine deficiency, vitamin A deficiency and leprosy as major public health problems
• Integrate disability issues into mainstream programmes
• Include disability, equalisation issues, and positive attitudes towards people with disabilities in the training curricula of personnel in education, health and social development
• Include rehabilitation services in all primary health care programmes and projects, for support of CBR programmes
• Make available sign language interpretation services at vital public services and facilities
• Enable at least 75 per cent of all children and adults with disabilities to participate in formal and non-formal education programmes, with the appropriate support services
• Achieve a minimum 50 per cent reduction in the incidence of three other preventable causes of disability (other than iodine deficiency, vitamin A deficiency and leprosy)