GOOD news continues to be under-reported. Bad news sells because it happens out of the ordinary and the expected. Accidents, crimes of passion and infidelity are not supposed to happen in the scheme of things but they do happen more than the normal events. The blind man’s chair is one good news that seems typical enough.

Since GAA 1998, which is the General Appropriations Act or the annual government budget, a special provision was inserted to set aside 10 percent of the Department of Education’s allocation for chairs and desks to the National Federation of Cooperatives of Persons with Disability. Now at P900 million, 10 percent of that is contracted out to persons with various disabilities and that is just the beginning of the story.

The chairs and desks are made with German consultants one of whom, Peter Hammerle, a carpenter by profession, speaks Filipino, attesting to his length of stay and dedication. The expertise and vaunted German engineering skill even for simple pieces go a long way—the pieces of furniture made to last on average a good ten years making them economical, safe and environmentally friendly. The chairs are strong enough to withstand vandalizing.

The disabled, or if you prefer, differently-abled, enjoy a specific competitive advantage. The wheel chair-bound are the welders and the nuts-and-bolts guys with their upper body strength. Once they start working, they stay put until the task is done. The deaf do the grinding oblivious to the noise level. With their heightened visual perception, angles are straight and metals linear. The amputees supervise the production line much like a commercial venture. The blind with their perfect sense of touch do the final touches of sanding and sculpting. It is beautiful teamwork. The empowering motto is disability does not mean inability.

Current employment is provided for a thousand disabled persons. The nationwide estimate is eight to 10 percent of our population are persons with disabilities. If only business people learned more about their capacities and dedication. I know of Cecilio Pedro of Hapee Toothpaste who regularly employs the deaf. Another friend, Mariel, contributes anonymously to a foundation for the deaf.

With numbers like that, a party-list for the disabled should be in Congress for the spirit of the Constitution to take shape in protecting the vulnerable sector. The major causes for disability include misfortunes like road accidents, violence and calamities the most part of which are preventable and avoidable. Such a terrible waste of human potential only to be uplifted by the grit of the disable workers. We don’t do enough for our disabled brothers. Doing a good turn daily should take a different emphasis.

The buzzing idea is for the chairs and desks to be made by disabled students themselves in our technical vocational schools espoused by the Department of Education. They not only learn the skills, cultivate the values of hard work and perseverance but earn to keep them in school. Not to mention the pride and sense of ownership of building an important part of your school. They will have graduated and moved on as entrepreneurs long after they made their first chair.

Durability in furniture, sus­tainability in education is the key standard. Do you realize that chairs and desks are made to specifications for elementary, high school and college students? We who finished all the levels look back and recall—we fit into them squarely then that we didn’t even notice. No wonder when we last visited our classrooms, we pointed and laughed at the mini chairs and desks. It is time we go back to your schools, take a nostalgic tour and donate some chairs. It might just be the blind man’s chair.