THE Department of Community Development (JAPEM) under the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports (MCYS) needs to be commended for instituting the "Anugerah Orang Berkeperluan Khas Berjaya" award for empowering and recognising the contribution of the special needs persons to society.

While giving the award to the first recipient Azmain Sulaiman, an entrepreneur, on Saturday to mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports Pehin Orang Kaya Pekerma Laila Diraja Dato Seri Setia Hj Hazair Hj Abdullah highlighted the titah His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam delivered on his 65th birthday in which the monarch expressed his pleasure and praised the citizen's caring attitude and their sense of togetherness in helping special needs persons through efforts by non-governmental organisations.

Very often disability is seen through medical and charity prisms which is improper as this approach, instead of empowering the people with disability, isolates them from the mainstream of society.

We must remember that disability does not mean inability. Special needs people do not need welfare but workfare. The emphasis should be on inclusion rather than on disability.

Therefore, the entire approach should focus on creating an education system that helps build the skills of people with disabilities so that they can read and write and compete on a level playing field with other applicants in the job market.

In this regard, JAPEM deserves all the praise for adopting the right approach as it's providing special needs people the financial assistance to start small businesses, counselling services, independent learning and skills, employment training and scholarship in tahfiz institutions.