This 60-year-old lawyer is using her legal background to champion equal treatment of people with disabilities in Singapore

In her younger days, Chia Yong Yong had no interest in helping others, she admits with a sheepish laugh. The lawyer was solely focused on climbing the career ladder, and was indifferent to the social service landscape.

Her admission comes as somewhat of a surprise: Today, the 60-year-old is a respected advocate who has lent her expertise to a number of agencies and boards in the social service sector, to champion the equal treatment of people with disabilities in Singapore. Her interest stems from her own disability: She has peroneal muscular atrophy, a condition that damages the peripheral nerves and causes the muscle tissues in her limbs to be progressively weakened.

“It took me such a long time to find a job that I wanted to make the best of it. I wanted to focus on just being a good lawyer,” she explains, pointing out that her disability made it difficult for her to find a position even as a law office clerk, let alone a lawyer. It was only after months of shadowing her pupil master, the late litigation lawyer Harry Lee Wee, that she found employment in 1986 as a litigator at law firm WT Woon & Co.

The importance of giving back

After a period of serving at different social service organisations without understanding her purpose, the lawyer slowly but surely started realising the impact that she could make. For one, she started listening in at meetings, and understanding how these organisations were empowering people with disabilities.

In spite of the physical challenges she faces, she also recognised that she had advantages in other aspects. Acknowledging that she had “received so much along the way”, she wanted to start giving back.

The epiphany happened when she was watching the trainees at SPD’s Sheltered Workshop, an initiative that offers employment and vocational training for people with disabilities: “As I observed them, I asked myself why they were in the sheltered workshops while I’m a lawyer. It was then I realised that it was because I had the opportunities that they didn’t have.”

She explains: “I was of the mindset that if I could make it, why couldn’t they? But when I cast my mind back to who made me the way I am, I realised that it was all the people around me who loved and gave me the open opportunities, regardless of [my] physical disability.”

Staying rooted in empathy

Yong Yong was diagnosed with peroneal muscular atrophy at 15 years old. She had already undergone multiple surgeries before her official diagnosis, as she would often trip due to her inability to lift the front part of the foot.

There were also other signs: When she was nine, she had noticed that she was unable to fully straighten her fingers. “So it was not a bombshell [revelation],” she recalls of the diagnosis. “More like an understanding that they could finally put a name to [the condition].” Her younger sister, Leslie, also has peroneal muscular atrophy.

As the condition progressed over the years, her limbs grew weaker. She started using a wheelchair in 1989. “I tried to delay it because I knew that my muscles would just weaken very quickly if I were to use a wheelchair, but the risk of falling was quite real, and one of my good friends convinced me to just use one when I was tired,” she recounts, noting that when the wheelchair came into the picture, “that was when [she] became more dependent [on others]”.

Yong Yong grew up in what she describes as a “very accepting environment”, and had “supportive parents, accommodating teachers, as well as helpful friends”. Had she not grown up in such an environment, would she be where she is today? “No, I don’t think so,” she says after a pause.

Her father, who had a subcontracting business, decided to switch careers to be a taxi driver in order to ferry her to and from school. To help supplement the family income, her mother worked various menial jobs, including being a confinement nanny, chambermaid and factory worker.

While Yong Yong is an optimistic person by nature – much of our conversation is peppered with cheerful smiles and an uplifting tone – she’s also practical. “Nobody likes to ask for help or trouble others, right? But I think this condition has been good when it comes to putting me in my place. Because it reminds me that I am not self-sufficient, and that other people are also not self-sufficient, and thus I should be more accommodating of others.”

Championing the differently abled

Through her advocacy work, Yong Yong is committed to promoting an inclusive and accessible society for persons with disabilities. There is more that can be done in Singapore, she points out, whether it’s building better infrastructure to include accessibility and family-friendly features, digital inclusion via the development of assistive technology, a holistic approach to employment of people with disabilities, or caregiver support for families.

In 2014, Yong Yong became the first wheelchair user to have a seat in the Singapore Parliament when she was appointed a Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP), serving two consecutive terms until 2018. In her time in Parliament, she also frequently highlighted the challenges faced by those with disabilities, and the need to shift mindsets to build greater understanding.

Today, Yong Yong serves in different capacities at various organisations, including SPD, SG Enable, HDB, as well as the Ministry of Social and Family Development Singapore. She’s also on the steering committee for Enabling Masterplan 2030, which aims to facilitate further disability inclusion in Singapore by 2030.

She continues to represent Singapore in regional and international disability conferences, and most recently went to Geneva in August as part of a government delegation to attend Singapore's first dialogue with the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Inclusivity is not a choice

For Yong Yong, life is finally coming full circle, as her experience as a lawyer informs her advocacy work. “Everything just started falling into place for me, when I was able to see that law can be used to create a positive impact on the lives of people. If only we [are able to] change the way we view the work that we do.”

The introduction of schemes such as the Mental Capacity Act and the Professional Deputies and Donees scheme have helped her achieve a greater social impact through active community legal outreach.

The practising lawyer and consultant believes that beyond building the hardware, the onus to build an inclusive society begins with each citizen.

We need to ask ourselves plenty of hard questions, she says: “Where are we in terms of acceptance of persons with disabilities? How do we nurture more parents, teachers, and friends to support other persons with disabilities? How do we keep our systems open and available to people with differing types of disabilities to empower them to level the playing field? How do we recognise the spectrum of disabilities and abilities, and design jobs so that we don’t fit square pegs into round holes?”

She refers to the term “social compact”, which urges people to look inwards at their own behaviour, and principles of right and wrong.

“The social compact is not a choice – it’s not akin to someone choosing to buy a handbag or phone,” explains Yong Yong. “It is an integral part of our citizenship right and obligation,” she continues. “Far from thinking that if I were involved in volunteer work today, I am doing somebody a favour – I see it in a manner in which I am only fulfilling my obligation to my fellow citizens, just as one day, hopefully, another citizen will fulfil his or her obligation towards me.”

Pushing through life's obstacles

In her free time, the free-spirited lawyer also enjoys travelling. She recently went on a family trip to Korea, one of her favourite countries. Other destinations she loves include Switzerland, Perth and Japan, as well as London for its musicals and museums.

She also has an adventurous streak – she loves roller coasters, although she has only taken one proper ride in her life as operators rarely allow her onto the attraction, and has also ridden an ATV as a passenger.

Ever the optimist, she sees each travel trip as an adventure. “Even accommodations can be a challenge, as you’ll never know if you’ll be able to use the restrooms, or if the beds will be too high,” she shares. “I do enjoy overcoming challenges, which is why to me, almost nothing is impossible, and I find it very difficult to take ‘no’ for an answer.”

And the biggest challenge of all, to build an inclusive and accessible society for persons with disabilities, can be overcome, she says firmly.

“In this economy, we now have the flexibility and the variables to redesign jobs and workspaces. We have a wide range of resources to teach and educate people with disabilities, and also the people around them. The only thing we need to do is to convince people that it can be done.”

Is Singapore truly inclusive?

Yong Yong acknowledges that much has changed since the government’s 2004 mandate to build an inclusive society, but there is still much to be done. “If you ask me, am I satisfied? Well, I am thankful, but I'm not satisfied.”

For example, in terms of employment, schemes such as the Enabling Employment Credit and Open Door Programme (ODP) help employers integrate employees with disabilities into the workplace. While such schemes have helped improve the employment situation, “redesigning jobs and retaining employees with disabilities still require a greater collaboration from stakeholders, such as employers, employees, persons with disabilities and even customers”. The goal, according to Yong Yong, is to have all workplaces become disability-neutral.

PHOTOGRAPHY Phyllicia Wang
ART DIRECTION Adeline Eng
HAIR & MAKEUP Aung Apichai

Other photos courtesy of Chia Yong Yong & Kim Mi Yeon