I believe in employing individuals who are physically challenged. They shouldn’t be treated as second-class citizens, but somehow they are treated as such. Its an uphill struggle for them. They live in a world that doesn’t understand the concept of disabled.
Improved awareness
For the hearing impaired, they can actually function. In a factory setting where noisy and noise cancelling ear devices are used, they would be at par with other workers. What is needed is improved awareness that these people exist and are willing to work. There should be government incentives that are passed that can help get these people into productive jobs.
As for the blind, that is another story. When I think about jobs that a blind person can do, I end up thinking about the blind people I see in the malls who give massages. In essence, I do believe that they can give good massages. They can more or less “see” with their hands and become more sensitive to what they are touching. I don’t know what other opportunities they can be given.
On going blind
If ever anybody asked me which sense I couldn’t live without, it would be my eyesight. I can imagine myself just sitting in a room and not uttering a word. I would probably just ask someone to play back my favorite movies or TV shows and leave it constantly running. It’s just a disability that I hope will never happen me or anyone I know. Unfortunately, I have a cousin who became legally blind. Someone poured acid on her face, damaging both her eyes. The assailant was someone who had/has psychiatric problems at that time.
If you are inquisitive enough, you can just type my last name and the word “blind” on Google (doesn’t show up on Bing) and you will find the name of my cousin. She was a great soccer player and a student of DLSU. A few years after the incident, she needed to stay at the house I was living in for a night. I just greeted her and left the room, unable to say anything. That was the last time I saw her since she moved to the US, where there were more opportunities for blind people to make a living. She was able to get married to another blind person whom she met at an institute in the US. A short time after, there was an accident and she passed away. This was over 10 years ago and this was the first time I ever discussed it.
Create opportunities
Blind and deaf people are just like us. They want to lead a meaningful life. It used to be that people who were blind and/or deaf were told that what they had were disabilities. Later on, as we became more politically correct, they became more known as challenges. So physical disability became physically challenged. So please, let’s help remove the term challenged by creating opportunities for them.
The author is an MBA student at the Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business. This essay is part of a journal he keeps in fulfillment of the requirements of the course, Lasallian Business Leadership with Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics. Visit his blog at https://docsandejas.wordpress.com/.
The views expressed here are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official position of DLSU, its faculty, and its administrators.