Time to commit to national target on inclusive employment

It makes business sense. Firms employing the disabled outperform those that do not. How about shooting for 15 per cent employment rate of persons with disabilities, in five years?

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None of the world-class management courses I've attended had prepared me for this. When I started Hush TeaBar - Singapore's first silent tea bar to promote mental wellness and inclusion - I knew it wasn't going to be a walk in the park to have the entire team be completely made up of differently abled persons (deaf and persons with/in-recovery from mental health conditions).

Today, the core team of six has been joined by another 20 deaf persons on a project basis. They, along with hearing volunteers, run all projects on their own - from planning to execution. And Hush has been operating as a financially viable social enterprise without daily oversight for the last 18 months.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on July 06, 2019, with the headline Time to commit to national target on inclusive employment. Subscribe