Blind should learn English for BPO career
By Vincent Cabreza
Northern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 18:45:00 07/19/2008
BAGUIO CITY -- BLIND FILIPINOS have a bright future in the business process outsourcing (BPO) trade, but it is their poor command of the English language that has prevented them from taking this career path, according to advocates for the rights of people with physical disabilities.
Naas Dymettenaere, the Belgian director of the Baguio-based Institute for Inclusive Education Foundation (IIEF), said technology has opened up new work opportunities for Filipinos suffering from various disabilities. IIEF is an institution under the Saint Louis University here.
At least two BPO firms in Metro Manila and the Medical Transcription Academy of the Center for Technical Excellence Integrated School Inc. (CTEISI) here have piloted programs designed for the blind, particularly in the areas of medical and legal transcription.
The work requires Filipinos to transcribe reports supplied by a doctor or a lawyer based overseas. These reports are transmitted to the country trough the Internet as audio files.
But these firms failed to develop a viable workforce from Filipinos with disabilities, according to CTEISI.
Dymettenaere said this could be traced to their relatively poor grasp of English.
He said government and private sector initiatives have not considered the vast number of disabled Filipinos, who are either refused access to mainstream education or who are never encouraged to enroll in regular schools.
“We must reflect on this problem [about] mainstreaming education. We don’t need specialized schools for [the disabled]. They need to be in the same classes we all go to [to learn] English,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“The disabled should not be treated this way. We should not put them in cages. They should go to the schools where everybody goes,” he said.
Dymettenaere said the IIEF’s main goal is to reorient teachers to teach students regardless of their color, class or physical condition.
He said the IIEF has been successful with SLU instructors, who now command a stable of students including about 300 disabled youths.
Dymettenaere said government should review its policy on educating the disabled, using this initiative.
A lobby organization is campaigning for a Philippine ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, on behalf of an approximate 8.5 million Filipinos with physical disabilities.
Part of this convention stipulates that a government must ensure “inclusive participation in all levels” of their constituents who are disabled, said Dymettenaere.
When the campaign was first launched here in February, Venus Ilagan, former chair of the Disabled Peoples’ International (DPI), a UN lobby group, told the Inquirer that the campaign also reminds government about its pledge to fill up 5 percent of its labor pool (approximately 1.7 million of 35.5 million workers, based on a 2005 census) with skilled workers who are physically impaired.
Porfiria Bernardez, Cordillera director of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), said government has made strides in fulfilling this promise.
The region’s various government agencies have been able to staff their offices with 78 employees who have physical disabilities, she said.
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