Research: Advocacy for Disability Inclusion

The study explored the opinions of the disability community regarding factors that influence their voting behaviour and disability issues that are important to them.

710 Malaysians of voting age all across Malaysia participated in the survey study. Study participants included persons with disabilities, parents of persons with disabilities, family members of persons with disabilities, professionals working in the disability field, carers, volunteers and friends of persons with disabilities.

Key Findings

Voting Preference of the Disability Community

The disability community will preferentially vote for political parties or candidates:

that advocate for the inclusion of this community into society.
with a performance record of improving opportunities for persons with disabilities.

Key Concerns of the Disability-Community

The disability community wants the elected government to focus on:

Improving employment inclusion (better and wider job opportunities);
Improving education inclusion (inclusion in mainstream/regular classes);
Enforcing the rights of persons with disabilities.

Reasons for non-registration as OKU

Some persons with disabilities do not have an OKU card because they felt that having it would lead to stigma or they did not see how the OKU card could help them. Some were not aware of disability registration.

Failure to Use and Enhance Persons with Disabilities (PWD) Act 2008

Amending the PWD act 2008 to give it punitive powers was not ranked as highly as other areas. This implies that the PWD Act 2008 has had little impact on improving the lives of persons with disabilities and the whole disability community.