ADE Wirawan, who has hearing impairments, once considered difficulty in communicating as his greatest challenge at work. He interned three times at companies. Despite being in full command of formal Indonesian, he did not feel that there was accessibility in communication between “the deaf” and “the hearing”, especially during job interviews.

Ade said that there are still many among the people with disabilities, especially those who speak minority sign languages, who still lack awareness of their right to accessibility. “When actually there is already Law No. 8/2016 on persons with disabilities,” Ade told Tempo in a written answer on Monday, November 7. The regulation guarantees the right of people with disabilities to make use of public facilities and receive proper accommodations.

Based on this experience, Ade now actively educates and advocates companies; micro, small, and medium enterprises; as well as the government on issues of work for people with hearing impairments. Under an organization called Gerkatin (Indonesian Association for the Welfare of the Hearing-Impaired People), Ade helps run various advocacy programs as secretary of Bali Gerkatin.

Workers participating in sign language training at Inklusiv Warung, Canggu, Bali, November 9. TEMPO/Nita Dian

Gerkatin was formed from several regional organizations of hearing-impaired people. On February 23, 1981, leaders of these communities agreed to hold a congress. In the first congress in Jakarta, they decided to consolidate these organizations into Gerkatin. The organization was registered in 1983 as a member of the World Federation of the Deaf headquartered in Helsinki, Finland.

According to Ade, Gerkatin was formed to protect and fight for the human rights of people who are deaf, and to eradicate discrimination both in life and livelihoods. “As well as to fight for equal rights in the need for information technology and communications accessibility in the form of training and sign language for hearing-impaired people.”

Gerkatin also aims to gather Indonesia’s deaf people, to build unity between those who have hearing impairments and the non-deaf communities, to unearth and develop the potentials of deaf human resources, and to develop cooperation between deaf organizations and other organizations, both in Indonesia and overseas.

Founder of Kerjabilitas, Rubby Emir. TEMPO/Pius Erlangga/File Photo

Ade hopes that such training classes could raise the awareness of the hearing community to communicate with hearing-impaired people using sign language. “Sign language is a language to open opportunities and an approach to the deaf, to provide accessibility as well as facilities at the workplace,” said the man who works at the human resources division at Inklusiv Warung.

Another community that supports people with disabilities in finding work is Kerjabilitas. Founded by Rubby Emir in 2015, Kerjabilitas is a web-based online platform to help people with disabilities receive information on inclusive job opportunities at both large and small companies.

Kerjabilitas is like most job-finding platforms. A person with disability wishing to find work through Kerjabilitas only has to register, fill out an identity form, upload a resume, and choose their field. After that, they will receive notifications based on the jobs they choose.

Now, Kerjabilitas has 12,000 users and 3,000 partner companies from various sectors, including micro, small, and medium enterprises, large companies, and multinational companies. Each year, Kerjabilitas places around 100 people with disabilities. Currently, 600 people with disabilities are working in diverse sectors through Kerjabilitas.

Rubby also organizes routine career training to provide people with disabilities, who are relatively new to the workforce, with knowledge and basic skills. The training given is on mapping a dream career. “The focus is for people with disabilities in the workforce to know their own strengths, interests, and skills,” said Rubby.

After creating a career map, they are taught how to create a resume and interview skills. After the training, Kerjabilitas matches their abilities to companies looking for employees with disabilities. “Like a matchmaker,” said the 42-year-old man.

Since it began in 2018, the career coaching program has trained around 300 people with disabilities. According to Rubby, those who join the training have a success rate of 70 percent of entering the workforce.

Rubby says not all people with disabilities are able to participate in the career coaching due to limited capacity and training mode. The automatic online training is not 100-percent accessible for several types of disabilities. Most of the people who took part in the coaching are people with physical disabilities. Rubby also trains the blind and deaf people. Meanwhile, mental disability is a challenging factor for Rubby because the intervention has to go deeper.

Kerjabilitas employees at work in their office, Yogyakarta. TEMPO/Pius Erlangga/File Photo

The support given varies, depending on the disability. First, Rubby will look at the challenges people experience when accessing Kerjabilitas’s services. After a challenge is identified, he will attempt to overcome the challenge. For the hearing-impaired people, for example, Rubby offers simple language and short sentences, and provides captions for videos. During training, Rubby also enlists an interpreter to ease communication.

For hard skills, Kerjabilitas partners with training centers (BLK) in various cities. So far, six training centers in Solo and Semarang (Central Java), East Lombok (West Nusa Tenggara), Bekasi (West Java), Medan (North Sumatra), and Makassar (South Sulawesi) have been giving trainings through a partnership between Kerjabilitas and the ministry of manpower. “Our mission since 2018 is to encourage BLK in all Indonesia to be inclusive,” said Rubby. In the future, people with disabilities will be able to access free training at a BLK in their own regions.

Kerjabilitas’s mainstay program is its career coaching, or training that is always combined with an internship and job-matching. “So, a 3-in-1 program,” said Rubby.

Kerjabilitas employees at work in their office, Yogyakarta. TEMPO/Pius Erlangga/File Photo

Besides services for applicants and Kerjabilitas users, Rubby offers office accessibility and candidate screening services to help firms become inclusive companies that can employ people with disabilities without discrimination.

To give a firm an “inclusive company” label, Rubby has to assess the accessibility of the work environment at a fee. The assessment includes a check of the work facilities and environments, both in the exterior and interior areas. After creating a comprehensive assessment, Ruby makes recommendations as to what needs to be improved in order for a firm to be an inclusive company.

Another service is screening for people with disabilities who take part in job-matching. For example, when a company wishes to recruit persons with disabilities according to its criteria or location. In such cases, Rubby will find applicants within Kerjabilitas’s user base, which is quite significant. The service comes at a fee to support operations and routine training.

VHINA NOVIYANTI (INTERN)

This story was produced with support from the Round Earth Media program of the International Women’s Media Foundation.