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Microsoft Futsal
May 13, 2008
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The World Health Organisation estimates that 10% of the world’s population has a disability and within this group, 80% of the disabled population will remain unemployed and unable to support themselves. If that’s an estimated global projection, then what are some of the statistics for Singapore?
There are about 150,000 disabled people in our country and this number is expected to increase as our population greys.
But in line with the government’s vision to focus on helping the disabled in our community, multi-national corporations like Microsoft have started a social initiative to provide accessible technology to the less fortunate, equipping them with the skills necessary to realize their full potential and re-integrate back into society and the work-force.
This week in the first of a 2-part feature, learn more about Microsoft’s social campaign and its dedication to helping those who can’t help themselves.
You’re tuned in to On Campus on Radio Singapore International. I’m Michael Tan.
Managing Director of Microsoft here in Singapore, Mr Barney Lau, tells me more about the Microsoft Futsal Initiative.
BL: About two years ago, we saw the initiative from the government to focus on people with disabilities and about the same time, Microsoft made a pledge to raise a million dollars to help the people with disabilities to realize their potential through IT and we wanted to raise that million dollars in three years, so with this year’s Realizing Potential Futsal charity effort, we raised another $478,000 in addition to last year’s $487,000, so we are almost a million dollars raised to the benefit of people with disabilities, almost one full year ahead of schedule.
And so how is Microsoft utilizing information technology to help facilitate the re-integration of disabled people into society?
BL: It starts with the belief that Microsoft has that every person has the ability to realize their full potential and IT has a part to play and so last year, when we did our Realizing Potential effort, we raised $487,000 and part of that money went towards building a Microsoft Accessibility and IT Centre, IT Training Centre, in the Society for the Physically Disabled. So what we do is to donate of our software, resources, as well as our training curriculum to help these people with disabilities acquire the basic computer skills so doing so will help them be more connected to society, improve their quality of life and hopefully really improve their employment opportunities.
So how does imparting skills and knowledge in this sense differ from communicating the same syllabus to an able person?
BL: It’s a lot more difficult for someone who has polio or someone who is partly paralysed or who does not have complete control over their motor skills to use the computer or even for those who are visually-impaired, so you know, to train people with disabilities on IT training is not easy so that’s why a special centre such as the Microsoft Accessibility and IT Training Centre has to be built with special facilities to facilitate this sort of training. And also, the software, the good thing about the Microsoft Vista software and Office software has got very good accessibility features and functions built right into the software itself out of the box, so that helps. Like for example, for the visually-impaired, we have what we call the screen-magnifier, so you can mouse over and parts of the screen with magnify itself so that those with visual issues can read better. We also have text-to-speech conversion, text-to-speech narrator, we also have speech-to-text conversion as well so again, this will help those who are deaf and mute.
So is software of this nature currently available in the market?
BL: These accessibility features and functions come standard with Microsoft Vista and Microsoft Office.
And so this of course is in keeping with Microsoft’s social mission to give back to society?
BL: Yeah, it starts with our mission of helping every person realize their full potential and the people with disabilities have that unique capability of doing so with IT and so our effort these last two years to raised a million dollars in building the IT Centre as well as raising funds so that we can put as many people with disabilities through training, that’s the entire purpose of this Realizing Potential programme.
So in Singapore, there’re about 150,000 people with some form of disability and this number is expected to increase with our graying population. How does Microsoft aim to continue supporting the disabled in this regard?
BL: One of the things that we try to do in the Centre is to cycle through as many people through the centre on a daily basis, weekly, monthly, yearly basis, equipping them with the basic training. Now, not everybody is going to be able to go through the training centre, so over time, Microsoft here in Singapore will be working with different charities that focus on people with disabilities, hopefully, we can help to build more of such facilities so that more people can go through this sort of training.
And that was Mr Barney Lau, Managing Director of Microsoft here in Singapore.
To learn more and to support Microsoft’s dedication to improving the lives of the less fortunate, log on to www.microsoft.com.sg.
This has been On Campus! www.rsi.sg/english is where you can tune in to this and many more great programmes from Radio Singapore International!
‘Til next week, I’m Michael Tan. Have a good one.
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