Can-Do-Ability: Answers and Solutions from my personal experiences of living with a disability

Employers need Disability Awareness

16 Jul 2012In a past blog I mentioned how the government and disability employment services need to educate employers on how people with disabilities are just like any other employee they would hire except they have some extra qualities that would make them more appealing.

Ok, I'm just gonna state the obvious right now – if you hire someone in a wheelchair, they bring their own chair to work and so, that is one less chair you have to provide for your office staff.

On a serious note:

The report titled “Improving Employment Opportunities for People with a Disability” by the Department of Family and Community Services listed one of its actions being:

“Build employer awareness of the contribution people with disabilities can and do make.”

Their research exposed that:

“Many employers were wary of hiring people with disabilities - or did not even consider the possibility – simply because they knew little about them and were fearful of the risks they perceived could be involved. Such perceptions do not belong only to employers: employer attitudes reflect the broader attitudes of the community. Broader attitudinal research shows the community is similarly unsure of the work capacities of people with disabilities.”

So, in order to overcome the fear of the unknown, information and communication needs to be implemented into work places in order to change perceptions as stated in the report:

“The employers also displayed a willingness to change during the focus groups once they were provided with information about the positive aspects of employing people with disabilities. This suggests the potential power of information and communication in changing their perceptions and influencing their subsequent recruitment behaviour

My question is:

1. How can we communicate and share information with employers about having people with a disability in their workplace?

a. In person

b. Via media – TV & internet, DVD

c. Public forum

d. Networking meetings



Would you like to comment on this article?

Name: 
Location: 
Comments: 
  Enter these characters into the red box
Please type the red letters and numbers into the red box above. This is to protect our system from SPAM and viruses.

Previous Comments

ann mcintyre from south lanarkshirescotland posted on 8 Aug 2012
The best way to share awareness to all employers is through media perhaps face book or tv where it is the way we all communicate. however to ensure to possibility of getting the awareness across by all means all forms of communication is best all the above a.b.c.d and more.Especially all government forums.If the prime minister could understand then he would be the best person to implement it across the world. Also another good way is making a programme as good as the soaps but about employers and deaf employees on a day to day basis.

Blog Archive

Focus on Ability 10th anniversary
Posted: 8 Feb 2018

Focus on Ability Short Film Festival 2017
Posted: 6 Jun 2017

2016 IASSIDD World Congress Day 4
Posted: 18 Aug 2016

2016 IASSIDD World Congress Day 3
Posted: 17 Aug 2016

2016 IASSIDD World Congress Day 2
Posted: 16 Aug 2016

A better way of describing the autistic spectrum
Posted: 2 Jun 2016

Ouch Disability Talk Podcast
Posted: 7 Apr 2016

Have you heard of Anosmia
Posted: 5 Apr 2016

When society thinks you'd be better off dead
Posted: 31 Mar 2016

I'm not being anti-social
Posted: 29 Mar 2016

Time to think about how to create a more inclusive Australia
Posted: 23 Mar 2016

World Down Syndrome Day
Posted: 21 Mar 2016

 
Copyright © 2024 Nova Employment Limited