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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- The country’s first disabled senator, Prof Datuk Dr Ismail Md Salleh (pictured), died on a flight from China to Singapore. He was 61.
An officer at the Malaysian High Commission in Singapore said Ismail was pronounced dead on arrival at the Singapore General Hospital at about 8 a.m. August 27.
He was laid to rest at the Sungai Kantan Muslim cemetery in Kajang. Ismail leaves behind wife Datin Hasnah Wahab and six children between ages of 12 and 26.
The visually challenged Ismail became the first person from the disabled community to be appointed senator in December 2007.
Born in Pasir Mas, Kelantan, he was totally blind since he was 13, but the limitation did not stop him from getting his degree, masters and PhD, all in the United States.
His achieve-ments were recognised by the Gui-nness Book of World Records, which na-med Ismail as the first blind person to receive a doctorate.
He also held various key positions, including Twintech Inter-national University College vice-chancellor, Twintech Holdings Sdn Bhd chief executive officer and National Association of Bumiputra Private Colleges president.
He was a member of the National Implementation Task Force in the Prime Minister’s Department and former deputy director-general of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies.
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
From Bernama:
