Employ the Disabled

In May 1995, the Administration set out in the White Paper on Rehabilitation the vision of "equal opportunities and full participation: a better tomorrow for all" (平等齊參與，展能創新天). One of the main targets is to ensure that people with a disability have an equal chance to participate in productive and gainful employment in the open market.

In support of the central policy, the Executive Grade has been recruiting disabled candidates whenever they are found suitable for employment. The achievements of some of these officers are not only well known to Grade members, but also widely recognized by the community. In 1990 and 1997, Mr Morris TAM, EO I, and Miss TING Ling, EO II, respectively received the Outstanding Disabled Employee Award. Well before them, Mr Bennet HA, SEO, received the Outstanding Disabled Person of the Year Award in 1981. He was also granted a free trip to UK as one of the two representatives of Hong Kong in the International Year of Disabled People.

Employment of People with a Disability in the Civil Service

As the largest employer in Hong Kong, the Government has been taking the lead in the employment of people with a disability. To this end, the Government has adopted the following measures -

• as a rule allowing persons with a disability to apply for civil service posts;
• not applying shortlisting criteria to persons with a disability;
• giving applicants with a disability preference for appointment when they are found suitable;
• appointing persons with a disability even if they can only perform part of the duties of a rank;
• requiring decision of not appointing persons with a disability to be made by officers at or above Assistant Director level;
• attending selection interviews involving applicants with a disability as far as possible by CSB staff;
• conducting visits to departments by staff of CSB and the Labour Department to enhance departments' understanding of government policy on employment of people with a disability; and
• providing technical aids for disabled officers to perform their duties.

The Government's latest target is to employ 3, 550 disabled persons in the civil service by the end of 1998. This figure excludes those with defective colour perception. CSB and the Labour Department, together with representatives from non-governmental organisations, will continue to visit departments to promote awareness of the working abilities of people with a disability as well as discussing ways to resolve any practical problems encountered in their placement.

A simple way to acquire technical aids for disbled officers

Technical aids provided for disabled Executive Officers

• Scanner
• Magnifying Machine
• Optacon (for scanning and reading)
• Perkins Brailler (portable machine for writing in braille)
• Power Braille PB 40 (portable braille display for computer)
• Braille Lite (note-taking device with speech and braille output)
• Super Vista SVGA Interface Card (hardware for magnifying computer programmes on the screen)
• Screen Power for Windows (software for braille conversion of computer information)
• Omni Page Pro 6.0 (OCR software)

Morris Tam uses a magnifying machine to read
David Li uses a Slate & Stylus to write and a Braille Lite to take notes