Difficulty: Challenger (Level 2)
Navigating school and planning for a career can be scary for many young Hongkongers. However, those with disabilities have additional barriers that create more significant challenges.
Faride Shroff is trying to address these issues through the SENsational Foundation. She founded it in 2013 after working for over 20 years as a teacher for students with special needs.
The foundation educates the public about the problems people with disabilities have.
It has served hundreds of clients with counselling, mentoring, and life skills programmes.
The starting point
Shroff, who moved to Hong Kong from India over 30 years ago, left teaching in 2013 after counselling a former student through a crisis.
That year, she founded her organisation, and its first employee was an ex-student with a disability. Shroff noted that disabled children are often excluded from classrooms because of their differences. Their peers and teachers may not have the training or resources to meet the pupil’s needs.
“Including children with disabilities in the class ... [and] playing together is so important,” she said. “[But] parents say: ‘My kid should not be seated next to someone with a disability.’”
Even beyond the stigma, families of children with disabilities still face financial hurdles.
“Parents have to spend so much money, not only [on] school fees but ... for example, speech therapy, occupational therapy,” Shroff said, explaining why SENsational offered financial aid for families.
Challenges of those with disabilities
The challenges don’t stop after children with disabilities grow up: they still face barriers in society, from inaccessible infrastructure to companies that don’t want to hire them.
Shroff noted that many buildings in Hong Kong sacrifice accessibility for aesthetics.
For example, there aren’t enough ramps for wheelchair users, and lifts often lack auditory signals to help people with vision issues.
Shroff said many Hong Kong companies might not want to “inconvenience” themselves by hiring people with disabilities.
“People don’t want risk,” Shroff said. “[They think:] ‘If I want to employ someone with a disability, there’s going to be accommodations; I’m going to have to challenge the way that we do things.’”
But she pushes them to change their minds: “The only way to create positive change in society is if you ... are willing to be inconvenienced.”
