From July 4 to 5, 2026, ART:DIS in Singapore, a nonprofit organization (NGO), held Pocket Fest, an event consisting of small workshops, a gallery, food and more. The exhibition featured many artworks from artists of ART:DIS, and it consisted of small classes teaching art skills from caricatures to cyanotype.

People With Disabilities in Singapore

Singapore’s disability rates for students, people ages 18-49, and people over 50 are 2.1%, 3.4%, and 13.3% of their populations respectively. Among residents with disabilities between the working ages of 15 to 64 in 2023 and 2024, around 34.7% were employed, with 3.6% having no job but currently looking for one. The remaining 61.8% were not considered in the labor force, many citing poor health or disability as the leading cause.

Benefits in Singapore for People With Disabilities

Singapore has several initiatives to help people with disabilities, including the Open Door Programme, which allows people with disabilities to gain a “year of job matching, and customised employment support” from experts. Grants under the same program also give subsidies to people with disabilities to go to training programs led by Enabling Academy, SG Enable’s disability learning hub.

SG Enable – an agency established by the Ministry of Social and Family Development focusing on inclusion and disabilities – with its partners, provided around 500 people with disabilities jobs each year between 2020 and 2022.

Employers can also gain wage support via the Enabling Employment Credit (EEC), a scheme by the government, which gives 20% wage support for people with disabilities making less than $4,000 per month. In 2022, almost 6,600 organizations gained the EEC and together employed over 10,000 people with disabilities.

About ART:DIS and When It Was Founded

ART:DIS is a nonprofit organization aimed at providing educational and livelihood opportunities to people with physical, sensory and intellectual disabilities through the arts. Professor Tommy Koh founded ART:DIS in Singapore in 1993. ART:DIS organizes art partnerships, showcases and events to help people with disabilities in the future. ART:DIS also provides a platform where people with disabilities can express themselves, gain confidence and be part of a community.

How ART:DIS in Singapore Is Helping People With Disabilities

During the 2024 to 2025 financial year, ART:DIS helped 992 people and made more than $600,000 for their artists. In the same year (according to its annual report), ART:DIS was able to sustain three art centres, 91 regular art programmes, and it hosted 44 showcases, exhibitions and performances. Donations towards ART:DIS in Singapore go toward supporting training, mentorship and opportunities for artists with disabilities, giving them pathways to meaningful creative work, income opportunities and greater independence.

ART:DIS in Singapore uses the Social Model of Disability, which holds that barriers in society prevent people with disabilities from advancing further, rather than its own condition being the cause. This stands in contrast to the Medical Model, which treats people with disabilities as needing medical attention, and the Charity Model, which frames people with disabilities as objects of pity or as inspiring figures to be admired.

ART:DIS, using the Social Model, wants to normalize including people with disabilities. The organization wants to change the physical, attitudinal and communication barriers and raise access to ensure that people with disabilities can participate in society equally. One way that ART:DIS implements the Social Model is through providing different ways of learning, training and collaborating, adapted to suit each student’s and artist’s accessibility needs.

According to an ART:DIS feature, art helps reveal the individual “strengths and perspectives” that people with disabilities possess. It also enables people to understand who the people behind the artworks are. Art can also help increase self-confidence, “personal growth, social inclusion, and mental health benefits,” according to an article by Incluso. Moreover, art improves fine motor skills, coordination, communication and comprehension.

Helping People With Disabilities and Reducing Poverty

People with disabilities are more likely to face poverty compared to those without disabilities; however, ART:DIS in Singapore aims to combat this via helping their artists become financially independent. ART:DIS provides artists with disabilities programs which enable them to upskill towards professionalism. In the 2024/2025 year, ART:DIS gave 316 job opportunities to artists with disabilities, helping them build greater livelihood independence.

When people with disabilities receive skills training, like ART:DIS provides, they gain economic independence, helping end the cycle of poverty. A Harvard paper defines poverty as “a cause and consequence of disability.” If poverty is a consequence of disability, then helping people with disabilities can also help decrease poverty more broadly.

Looking Ahead

Instead of coming “from a place of deficit” when talking about people with disabilities, ART:DIS sees people with disabilities for what they can uniquely bring to the table. Through hosting events and programs, ART:DIS is aiming to change the narrative of people with disabilities, from what was once a dull story to one that is filled with brightness, optimism and color

– Sahana Sundar

Sahana is based in Singapore and focuses on Good News and Politics for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Unsplash