Unified disability services platform proposed in Parliament

TDT | Manama

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A unified national online platform for people with disabilities has been proposed in Parliament under an urgent request to link services and employment support to the main state bodies involved.

The proposal calls for one online portal where people with disabilities can apply for services, track progress and follow up their requests. It would be linked, within each body’s remit, to the Ministry of Labour, the Civil Service Bureau and the Ministry of Social Development, and coordinated with other relevant bodies, including the health and education authorities and the Information and eGovernment Authority.

MP Jaleela Alawi submitted the proposal with MPs Mamdouh Al Saleh, Abdulwahid Qarata, Lulwa Al Rumaihi and Muneer Seroor.

‘The idea of the proposal can be summed up as calling for the establishment of a unified national platform concerned with services for persons with disabilities, as well as their employment and rehabilitation,’ Alawi said.

She said it should be ‘a single digital “window” for requesting services and tracking them’, so people are not sent between offices and websites to get basic support.

The proposal says the platform would serve as a national source of information on services for people with disabilities in Bahrain. It would also handle job search services, including registration as a jobseeker, matching candidates with suitable vacancies and tracking openings in both the public and private sectors, through links with the Ministry of Labour and the Civil Service Bureau.

It would also connect users to care, rehabilitation and social support through the Ministry of Social Development, and include a defined pathway for complaints and grievances.

The MPs pointed to Bahrain’s obligations under international disability rights agreements, including the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Bahrain ratified under Law No. 22 of 2011.

In explaining why it was submitted as urgent, the proposal says the lack of a single platform limits the ability to make data-backed decisions on the needs of people with disabilities, including employment and rehabilitation, and slows access to work because there is no unified pathway linking jobseekers with disabilities to the Ministry of Labour and the Civil Service Bureau.