Employment policies for people with disabilities in Jakarta: the study of people in Wisma Cheshire Organisation

Abstract

This research intends to find out the employment situation of people with disabilities in Jakarta, the objectives of the research are to describe policy implementation on employment for people with disabilities (PWD), to assess the opportunity and condition of the employment for PWDs, to find out the problems faced by PWDs, and the participation and the benefits of the policy to PWDs in Jakarta. It was designed to focus only on a specific target group of PWD in the Wisma Cheshire Foundation in Jakarta. This research uses qualitative method to gather information from key informants with semi-structure and in-depth interview. Focus group discussion was applied with a number of people with physical disabilities in Wisma Cheshire Foundation. The findings reveal that the employment policy for PWDs does not yield expected results. PWDs only have benefited a little from the policy rhetoric. This is basically the problem of implementation. There are a number of reasons as including, lack of confidence in PWDs and prejudices in community, limited public accessibility i.e. infrastructure. The study finds that the logic behind the overall the implementation shortfall is that the approach to disability policy is more on charity rather than rights based approach. It is also recognized that the lack of participation and involving of PWDs in planning and implementing of the employment policies has led to ineffectiveness.