SM Cares recently held the eighth iteration of its annual “Sensitivity Training on Caring for Customers with Disabilities,” which aimed to educate its mall frontliners on how to care for persons with disabilities (PWDs). The event was part of SM’s efforts to ensure PWD-friendly spaces in its malls and developments.

Held last May 20 and May 27, the two-part, virtual-training session successfully gathered more than 16,000 participants, made up of security personnel, maintenance staff and car-park employees, among others, as well as over 600 SM employees from different ranks. The informative discussions were led by five of SM Cares’ long-time partners in its PWD advocacy.

During the first day, Mona Veluz of the Autism Society Philippines gave a presentation on understanding people with autism through their behavior while Agnes Lapena of the

Down Syndrome Association of the Philippines talked about the basic things that people needed to know about down syndrome.

For day two, Ralph Torralba of Hard of Hearing Philippines talked about understanding the deaf and hard of hearing persons; Lita Evangelista of Tahanang Walang Hagdan talked about caring for people with disabilities, specifically those with orthopedic impairments; and architect Jimmy Silva of the United Architects of the Philippines discussed the basic rules on assisting the blind and visually impaired.

“We know that understanding our PWD customers is a continuous learning experience,” said engineer Bien Mateo, senior vice president for Mall Operations and program director for the SM Cares Program.