Petition for Special Education Needs (SEN) individuals in the Singapore Workforce
 
On behalf of those with SEN who are trying our best to eke out a living here and hopefully, be accepted by others in Singapore, we do respectfully ask that our Colleagues, Superiors and Onlookers:
 
1 Do not automatically assume that those with inherent invisible SEN

eg Autism, Asperger’s or Dyspraxia)
 
are trying to
 
·      be funny or
·      Lazy
 
2   Understand that some of us are really working doubly hard to accomplish things that may appear easy or simple to you. Look at the person's attitude, motive, heart and moral calibre than on just someone who plays the game and 'gets the job done'
 
3  Recognise we have certain strengths and gifts, which may not be regarded as that relevant and valuable here. But in other situations, especially when the nature of the vocation is matched to our talents, we could be really valued assets and good at what we do.
 
4   Identify with the fact that if you were at the receiving end, wouldn’t you want others to at least try to understand you and treat you as a fellow human being deserving of respect and dignity?

5   Be truly open to the reality here that the root of the problem at ground level is not so much due to the lack of 'awareness' or top-down structural programmes that look good on paper, which is representative of the normal procedure of appearing to 'tick the boxes'.

Rather, it's the lack of active modelling, understanding and treatment of those with SEN in systems that are dominated by KPIs, deadlines where there is little tolerance for perceived 'mistakes' because having SEN individuals as part of the workforce will function as a 'nice to have' aesthetic cherry on an organisation's CV.

6 Understand that keeping the appearance of inclusivity but maintaining the practice of mismatch of skills and proficiencies regarding those who have openly declared their SEN challenges even prior to employment would only lead to those with SEN getting a double whammy of feeling even more useless and experiencing eventual additional psychological, mental and emotional trauma.

7 Commit to active evaluation, monitoring and overhauling of obsolete non-inclusive ways of pervasive systemic work performance evaluation where the emphasis is, instead, on the development of people as individuals and where the PROCESS of talent development takes precedence over simply meeting short term targets at the expense of character, integrity and kindness.