Apologies for not updating this blog for a long time.

Recently, I was appointed by the minister concern to be a member of the Council on the People with Disabilities Act 2007, Malaysia. I am part of the committee on Universal Design: Built Environment and Transportation. Like my chairman said, “That is a lot!” She can say that again!

Here is an interesting diagram to sort of explain our scope of work:

What I am trying to say in the diagram that, we have one set on the Built Environment and another set on Transportation and where it overlaps, there is the subset on Street Environment.

Under Built Environment, commercial and “public buildings” are under the control of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, which is enforced by the various (they 118) local authorities in Malaysia. As for government buildings, the control is under Public Works Ministry who is the client (all the time) and sometimes execute the design as well. There is a bit where the Ministry of Federal Territories come in, where public buildings under the Kuala Lumpur City Hall’s control, Putrajaya’s control and Labuan’s control comes under.

As for Transportation and the subset regarding the Street Environment, there are no specifically one designated control body. It could be under the Highways Department, Ministry of Transport, Public Works Ministry or even Ministry of Entrepreneur. There is about 13 agencies involved, so I am confused!