The Guide Dogs Association of the Blind (GDAB) was founded to provide care for the visually impaired in Singapore. While we focus on providing training to increase the mobility of the visually impaired, our ultimate aim is to provide them with Guide Dogs, and to integrate Guide Dogs seamlessly into Singapore society.

Guide Dogs are popularly used all over the world. However, Singapore has been slow to adopt them.The first Guide Dog in Singapore was brought in from Australia in 1982. It would seem that using Guide Dogs would be relatively simple, but this has not been the case: usage requires infrastructural support and approval from the appropriate authorities. None of this was available in 1982, which is why the Guide Dog originally brought in had to be returned.

This was a shame: surely depriving some of society’s most disadvantaged members from helping themselves is an injustice. To redress this, the Guide Dogs Association of the Blind was formed. In 2005 another Guide Dog was brought in. Since then, with the help of our Patron, Professor Tommy Koh, Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we have been trying to integrate Guide Dogs seamlessly into Singapore society.

We have successfully initiated changes in regulations, such as the ‘only small dogs’ rule in HDB estates. Still, much work remains to be done in order to make Guide Dog usage easier in Singapore. As said by Professor Tommy Koh, we aim to help Singapore “become the most disabled friendly city in Asia.”