experiences difficulty in finding employment. During the year 105 deaf persons were found jobs in various industrial establishments which constantly recruit deaf trainees.
87. The physically disabled include persons who are incapacitated by such severe injuries as may occur in traffic or industrial accidents; such debilitating diseases as leprosy, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, TB, poliomyelitis; and by congenital deformities. These persons may require assistance and training in order to live with their handicap and to lead a useful life.
88. The physically disabled are given training mainly in the Aberdeen and World Rehabilitation Fund Day Centres in such skills as carpentry, the repair of electrical applicances, leather work, gardening, light mechanical work, printing and tailoring. Sheltered work is also available for the severely disabled but no institution is capable of assuming long term commitments of this kind without losing its ability to produce a regular turnover of trainees. Plans have therefore been made to increase the capacity of the Settlement for the Severely Disabled in order to free the Centres of inmates who are likely to require long term accommodation and sheltered employment.
89. Certain voluntary welfare organizations are also engaged in similar fields of activity. These include the Red Cross, whose day school at Tsz Wan Shan provides education for 120 disabled children; the John F. Kennedy Spastic Centre, which also provides education for 80 children 60 of whom are boarders; the Pui O Club, which is operated by the Lutheran World Federation, provides daily informal education and group activities for 24 children who are too old or too disabled to be accepted by normal or special schools; and the Heep Hong Club cares for a small number of disabled children of pre-school age.
90. Vocational assessment, guidance and training represent only part of the rehabilitative process; rehabilitation is not complete unless the disabled trainee is restored to a normal place in the community. To this end the Family Services Division has a placement and liaison unit whose primary task is to ensure as far as possible the placement of selected disabled persons in suitable remunerative employment; it achieves this by maintaining frequent contact with Government Departments, factories and business houses, and other employers. The extent of successful rehabilitation may be measured by the fact that, during the year, the unit found suitable employment for 297 disabled persons, out of a total of 355 applying for jobs.
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