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Meet the non-profit improving the lives and careers of disabled Hongkongers

May 14, 2025 | Media Coverage

Meet the non-profit improving the lives and careers of disabled Hongkongers

Co-founders Reina Cheng and Walter Tsui talk disability justice and creating a more inclusive workplace
It’s been quite the journey for Walter Tsui and Reina Cheng. From a chat over a kebab more than a decade ago to winning a prestigious award at the United Nations in Vienna, Austria, this March, their project, CareER, has been one of the more successful Hong Kong non-profit organisations, helping tertiary-educated people with a disability or special needs enter the employment market.

Every year since 2014, CareER has placed more than 70 people in new careers, in fields such as legal, human resources and cybersecurity, in local and multinational corporations as well as social enterprises.

For Tsui, co-founder and CEO, establishing CareER was personal. Diagnosed as visually impaired at three years old, he recalls an inclusive, supportive environment at primary and high school, “but it was the opposite when I went to university”.
Despite being tempted to quit, Tsui graduated from Chinese University, in 2011. He furthered his studies overseas and worked with various multinationals before establishing CareER, which now has 14 full-time staff, nearly half of whom have disabilities.
^CareER RunnERthon and Row-IN Carnival fundraiser in 2023.

“I got thinking, ‘Why are there no groups for helping people with disabilities in higher education? Why don’t we focus on seeing ability, not disability?’”

With the help of a researcher, Tsui delved into the issues faced by students with disabilities in higher education and discovered they’d had similar experiences to his. The researcher suggested Tsui get a group of graduates and students with disabilities together, “and then we just started with the first, I think, 30 to 40 members. And I realised, ‘Why don’t we just set up an organisation to maintain this group of people?’ One side is a talent pool for our employers and the other side would become a student union, an alumni for higher-educated people with disabilities”.

Why don’t we focus on seeing ability, not disability? — Walter Tsui

Cheng’s fateful meeting with Tsui took place when she was volunteering for another NGO, focusing on interview preparation for disabled students. Initially qualifying as a dentist, Cheng’s career had taken a left turn into HR leadership and, she says, she’d always felt a calling to help disabled people, even back in her dentistry days.

“I worked at a hospital because I wanted to do training for paediatrics,” she says. “I did one year of it, where every week we would see children with disabilities, and I always felt that was very rewarding.”

Today, Cheng is CareER’s chairwoman and the last member of the founding board – “part of the furniture”, she jokes.

^Walter Tsui and Reina Cheng (both holding certificate) receive the Zero Project 2025 Award which recognises initiatives designed to remove barriers for persons with disabilities and promote inclusion.

Before registering as a charity in 2014, Tsui told her that they “need HR professionals and recruitment consultants to bridge the gap between people with disabilities and the business world”.

They chatted over that kebab at a Chinese University campus canteen, she started volunteering for Tsui, went on to join the board, and has been the chair for almost six years.

“I want to walk together with people with disabilities who are talented,” says Tsui, “but may have wasted their talents because they’ve been unemployed for so long and they don’t trust themselves.”

Tsui agrees, especially in his own case. “We with disabilities often discriminate against ourselves,” he says.

“Even if they are the only person in the family that is tertiary educated,” adds Cheng. “So when they find that full-time employment, they’re changing the lives of everybody in that family.”

In the 2020 census, people with disabilities comprised 7.1 per cent of Hongkongers, but their labour force participation rate was only 19.7 per cent.

^An inclusive leadership camp organised by CareER in 2023

The Hong Kong government has taken steps to improve this, including financial incentives for employers, employment support services and encouraging inclusive employment, along with legislative and policy support.

Tsui, Cheng and the team at CareER – the name also spells “career” – are making inroads in addressing the numbers, too, by offering job-matching services for employers and tertiary-educated members, and peer support, as well as corporate training, to educate employers about the importance of an inclusive work­place culture, what CareER says is a first-of-its-kind framework in Hong Kong.

The last step is where CareER’s Disability Inclusion Index (DII) comes in. It aims to help employers under­stand their readiness to hire and accommodate individuals with disabilities, creating a more welcoming and accessible work environment.

In 2021, CareER was honoured with its first UN-affiliated Zero Project Award, which recognises innovative and scalable initiatives that are designed to remove barriers for persons with disabilities and promote sustainable inclusion. Then they won a second time for their DII programme, which is what brought Tsui and Cheng to Vienna in March. It was welcome recognition for Tsui, whose goal is still to “help our members get empowered and nurture more inclusive employers”.

Media CoverageMeet the non-profit improving the lives and careers of disabled Hongkongers