NCBM :: Blind Professional Assistance Service

Blind Professional Assistance Service (BPAS)

The Blind Professional Assistance Service (BPAS, formerly known as the Blind Professional Affairs Centre), started its operations in late 2001 but only began giving assistance to blind clients towards the later part of 2002.

As a section of the National Council for the Blind, Malaysia (NCBM), we are certain that blind individuals, as well as Member Organisations and members of the public are keen to know how the BPAS works and how it can assist blind people in general.

The services we provide will be dictated by the four objectives which were laid down by the Blind Professional Assistance Service Management Committee. They are:

Objectives:

1. To operate a resource centre to make available materials, documents and provide other appropriate services to meet the needs of blind professionals at their workplace.

2. To provide career counseling and advisory services to the involved parties.

3. To provide a forum for the exchange of views and experiences.

4. To provide support services to those aspiring to be professionals or venturing into new areas of employment.

We have divided our clientele into three categories as follows:

1. Blind people who have completed their secondary schooling (SPM)and who are either looking for jobs or thinking of going for further studies. This category will also include those who are working but require additional skills to improve their job promotional prospects.

2. Institutions of higher learning where there are blind students furthering their education.

3. Current and prospective employers of the blind. This category will include public and private bodies and educational institutions.

We operate a resource centre within the premises of NCBM where all our clients can expect the following services:

1. For those living within the vicinity of Brickfields, the centre is equipped with assistive devices such as screen readers, magnifiers, embossers and a diagram tracing device.

2. In order to reach a wider clientele, we provide telephone ICT support for three popular screen readers, scanners and some common business application software. As these software are constantly being upgraded, necessary adjustments would have to be made in using them.

3. Where blind employees need to be trained on some particular application software, BPAS will arrange special training sessions for them.

4. For blind employees who need assistance in convincing their employers to make available assistive equipment for them, BPAS will meet up with these employers to discuss such issues and to give demonstrations on the use of the relevant equipment.

5. Since we have assumed the responsibility of co-ordinating the distribution of books in the electronic format, clients who want to source for job-related books can refer to us.

6. Blind persons intending to venture into new fields of employment may approach us to source for information. We are prepared to discuss and help them to explore into the possibility of taking up certain posts.

7. We are also very interested to discuss and explore with employers and their blind employees about job upgrading and job functions.

8. As one of the objectives of BPAS is to provide a forum for the exchange of views and experiences, clients are invited to submit topics and we will arrange for the appropriate channels where these issues could be discussed.

In summary, the Blind Professional Assistance Service will attempt to look into all job-related problems of the blind and we will like to hear from both blind employees and their employers. If the problems do not come under our scope of work, or if we do not have the necessary expertise, BPAS will look for outside assistance or refer them to the relevant sources. Our first choice, of course, is the facilities in Member Organisations.

In conclusion, we wish to thank Member Organisations for their support thus far. However, we would like to urge them to give closer co-operation in the following areas:

1. For those organisations having placement units, we would like to offer our experiences in the use of assistive equipment and office automation.

2. Organisations with grass-root membership, we appeal to them to share with us their findings on the needs of the blind so that we can approach it together.

3. For those organisations with instructors and training facilities, we hope we can work more closely together in organising training sessions and in getting feedback.

Let us combine our efforts, expertise and resources to build up a class of blind professionals in the country.

Get connected to some of our blind professionals:

http://ncbm.webox.com.my/index.php?permalink=GetConnected

BPAS can be reached at:

Blind Professional Assistant Service
94A, Jalan Tun Sambanthan, Brickfields,
50470, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Tel: 603-22721442 /22724959
Fax: 603-2272496
E-mail: moseschoo@ncbm.org.my