People With Disabilities In Indonesia Need To Have Career Certainty

Screenshot of Fingertalk Founder Dissa Syakina Ahdanisa while delivering her presentation at the Y20 Indonesia 2022 4th Pre-Summit event which was monitored in Jakarta, Sunday night (19/6/2022). (Antara)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian government through the Ministry of Manpower is designing the creation of decent and inclusive jobs to protect persons with disabilities in order to ensure access for them to enter the world of work.

Founder of Fingertalk—Disability Rights Scholar—Dissa Syakina Ahdanisa said that Indonesia has a law that requires companies or business entities to employ people with disabilities.

"Some companies only hire people with disabilities to fulfill their quota. So I think it is very important for us to ensure that they can have a career," said Dissa at the Y20 Indonesia 2022 4th Pre-Summit event which was monitored in Jakarta, Sunday night.

"That's why to match and see what skills are needed can be bridged with technology," he said.

Dissa said that from 11 million people with disabilities in Indonesia, 1.5 million of them are underprivileged youth with limited access to education and job opportunities.

According to him, employment opportunities for people with disabilities are still a challenge that needs to be faced either by the state or by companies.

Dissa told about the process of establishing Fingertalk which aims to provide equal employment opportunities for persons with disabilities, especially deaf individuals because as many as 74 percent of the deaf in Indonesia are unemployed due to social stigma and communication barriers.

"We created a place where we can get to know each other and work past any prejudice or perception," he said as quoted by Antara.

In 2015, Fingertalk was born from a small cafe where people can learn to order food and drinks using sign language, as well as connecting consumers with a deaf community that displays and sells handicrafts made by people with disabilities.

Not only that, employment opportunities for people with disabilities are also growing due to the high demand for jobs. Fingertalk then created other cafes, car washes, and training grounds that were not only for their crew, but also open to other communities of people with disabilities.

"Persons with disabilities are a very diverse group and each group may have different needs. So we need to listen and understand especially how to ensure that initiatives built by people with disabilities can be sustainable and create a more lasting impact," said Dissa Syakina Ahdanisa.