Speech by Senior Parliamentary Secretary Mr Eric Chua at the Zero Project Asia Pacific Symposium 2026
Your Excellency Peter Storer, Ambassador of the Republic of Austria to Singapore,
Mr Martin Essl, Founder of the Essl Foundation and the Zero Project,
Mr Moses Lee, Chairman of SG Enable,
Ms Lee May Gee, CEO of SG Enable,
Friends and partners from Singapore and all over the world,
1 A very good morning to one and all, and welcome to the third Zero Project Asia Pacific Symposium. For friends who may not be able to see me, I’m Eric Chua. I’m a middle-aged, skinny Chinese man, and today I’m wearing white shirt and a black suit and on my lapel today is a purple whale that is handmade by Ling of Crochet Connectz. Ling runs Crochet Connectz with her son JH, who lives with autism.
2 Our theme today is Social Innovation for Disability Inclusion. For me, that starts with the power of networks. Across the world, persons with disabilities, their loved ones and their communities face many of the same questions about how we live, learn, work and play. Somewhere, someone may already have worked through a challenge that we’re facing right here in Singapore. I would say that life is too short for all of us to learn the same lessons the hard way.
3 Yesterday, at the Enabling Mark Business Conference, I spoke about a Singapore café called smol. Think about how much people in a busy kitchen rely on sound. Someone calls out a change to an order. A colleague coming up behind you and says, “Excuse me.” How do you make sure a Deaf teammate gets those cues too?
4 At smol, mirrors help Deaf staff see who’s approaching. Lights and vibrations let them know when something needs their attention, and their hearing colleagues actually went for sign language lessons. Imagine turning up for work and finding that your teammates have been learning to sign with you.
5 Martin, when you speak about helping good ideas travel, I think about what another café owner in another part of the world might take home from smol. A mirror might help in their kitchen too. Or they might sit down with their Deaf colleagues and ask, “What happens on a busy shift that the rest of us might miss?” Sometimes what travels is the question that helps another team find its own answer.
6 Persons with disabilities and their loved ones here in Singapore have helped me ask better questions, too. I’ve learnt from many of them in informal conversations over the years. They’ve also shaped our work on the Enabling Masterplan 2030 and, more recently, on the Taskforce on Assurance for Families with Persons with Disabilities. One question parents often raise is whether their son or daughter will find a job they enjoy. And if things get difficult at work, will there be someone they can turn to?
7 Those conversations have shaped the support we’re putting in place today.
-
At our Enabling Skills Centres, adults build skills for daily life and work through the Enabling Skills for Life Programme.
-
Closer to home, we’re expanding our Enabling Services Hubs from three today to 12 by 2028. More families will be able to get help in their own neighbourhoods, including support to plan for future care.
-
For people who want to live more independently, we’re trying two approaches. First, the Enabled Living Programme offers coaching and support in designated public rental flats. The Home Support Programme is designed to bring similar support to people in their own homes.
8 I met a young man whose name is Boon Hao, some months ago. Boon Hao lives in an Enabled Living Programme flat, he told me he’d cooked for friends on Valentine’s Day. What struck me was that he was the one doing the inviting.
9 With so many new approaches and pilots taking shape, it is for sure an exciting time for disability inclusion in Singapore. But at the same time, we also feel a very real responsibility to get this right. For an older caregiver, the question is deeply personal. When I’m gone, who will know my loved one well enough to understand what they want and support the choices they make?
10 Some of you have spent years helping people live more independently. I’d love to ask you, “What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started years ago?” Your experience could help us make better decisions here. And the learning goes both ways. I’d love for you to also hear from Boon Hao about what helped him settle into his flat and what he’d change. He may have an idea you could take home.
11 That’s the kind of exchange I hope we’ll see more of. Today, SG Enable and the Zero Project renew their partnership for another three years. Our first two symposiums brought together more than 400 delegates, innovators and partners. Six months from now, when you run up against a difficulty, I hope you’ll know someone here in this hall that you can call. Perhaps a fellow employer, a parent in another country, or maybe a designer with a disability who sees something you’ve missed.
12 In fact, you might meet that person at our first innovation showcase today. One of the exhibitors is Chocolate Inclusion. They’re a Singapore team that works with persons with disabilities to design tools for particular tasks. SG Enable could help a team like theirs identify a tool that is worth sharing. The Zero Project could introduce them to an employer elsewhere in the region. Workers with disabilities in the two workplaces could try the tool, compare notes and decide what they’d adapt.
13 And if you have an idea that could give persons with disabilities more choice in how they live, learn, work and play, we’d welcome the chance to try it here together. Next year, Queenstown and Marine Parade will be the first two towns in Singapore to pilot ways of making our neighbourhood spaces more inclusive. In Queenstown where I serve, we’ve invited residents with disabilities to our National Day celebrations and community carnivals. Through the Enabled Living Programme, we’ve also introduced participants to hawkers and grassroots leaders in their own neighbourhoods. I hope that when someone heads out for lunch, there’s a familiar face to say hello to.
14 I would like residents who use wheelchairs to take us along on one of those lunch outings. On the trip, we can find out if the path wide enough for two neighbours on wheelchairs to pass each other? At the hawker centre, can everyone sit at the same table? Suppose the seating makes that difficult. The Zero Project could connect us with a community that has tried a different layout in a food centre setting. Our residents and hawkers could adapt it, try it out, then sit down to lunch together. They’d be the best people to tell us whether it worked or not.
15 A big thank you, Martin, the Zero Project team and our friends at SG Enable, for bringing us together. When you visit the showcase, ask the people who helped design what you see, “What did you spot that everyone else had missed?” If their answer makes you think of someone back home, make your introduction.
16 The next time we meet, I’d love to hear what came of that introduction. Perhaps we’ll hear from a Deaf colleague about what changed on her shift, or from a Queenstown resident perhaps who can now join his friends at their usual table. That’s the power of a network. On that note, I wish everybody a very wonderful and magical symposium. Thank you