Employment briefly
Release of "Solutions at Work"
Solutions at Work was released today, in the European Year of People with Disabilities, by the Employers' Forum on Disability and sponsored by income protection specialists UnumProvident.
It addresses a range of employers' questions on disability today. Drawing on the experience of organisations successful at recruiting and retaining disabled people, the book takes managers through a selection of adjustments for a best practice approach to a diverse workforce.
Real case studies involving best-case scenarios and disability discrimination cases demonstrate how simple adjustments are often all that are needed for a disabled applicant or employee to get on with the job; for example, arranging a signer for a deaf candidate in a recruitment interview or spending £35 on a spell check for employees with dyslexia.
"Our biggest challenge is to adjust the way we think," says Susan Scott-Parker, Chief Executive of the Employers' Forum on Disability. "If we can ensure colleagues no longer make assumptions regarding what people can do -- assumptions based solely on a disability label -- we will have gone a long way towards creating a culture which truly enables everyone to contribute. It is hugely liberating when people immediately connect the word "disability" to the question "what adjustments would enable the person to do the job?"
The content brings together 17 Briefing Papers on a range of topics (see below) relating to the employment of disabled people produced over seven years, with over 600,000 copies already in use by managers across the United Kingdom.
Copies of "Solutions at Work: practical guides to managing recruitment" cost £15 for members of the Forum and £35 for non-members; and are available from the publications department at Employers' Forum on Disability on 020 7403 3020.
Press can obtain a review copy of "Solutions at Work" and further information from:
Diane Simonelli
Press Office, Employers' Forum on Disability
tel 020 7089 2480
mob 07811 360 760
email
pr@employers-forum.co.uk
or
John Hutson
Head of Public Relations
UnumProvident
tel 01306 873 471
email
john.hutson@unumprovident.co.uk
"Solutions at Work" includes the following titles:
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BP 0: A brief overview of the Disability Discrimination Act
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A practical guide to:
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BP 1: employment
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BP 2: employment adjustments for people with visual impairments
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BP 3: employment adjustments for people with hearing impairments
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BP 4: employment adjustments for people disabled due to progressive or fluctuating conditions
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BP 5: employment adjustments for people with mental health problems
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BP 6: employment adjustments for people with Dyslexia
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BP 7: Health and Safety & the DDA
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BP 8: Disability management and the medical adviser
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BP 9: employment adjustments for people with upper limb disorders and repetitive strain injuries
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BP 10: employment adjustments for people with diabetes
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BP 11: managing sickness absence
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BP 12: employment adjustments for people with epilepsy
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BP 13: employment adjustments for people with back problems
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BP 14: employment adjustments for people who stammer
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BP 15: managing recruitment
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BP 16: employment adjustments for people with HIV
First DRC Formal Investigation to Focus on Web Access
One thousand websites will be investigated for their ability to be accessed by Britain's 8.5 million disabled people in the Disability Rights Commission's (DRC) first Formal Investigation, it was announced today.
A key aim of the investigation will be to identify recurrent barriers to web access and to help site owners and developers recognise and avoid them.
The investigation will break new ground in its breadth and depth. 1,000 web sites spanning the public and private sectors will be tested for basic compliance with recognised industry accessibility standards. In addition, 50 disabled people will be involved in in-depth testing of a representative sample of these sites for practical usability. This work will help clarify the relationship between a site's compliance with standards and its practical usability for disabled people.
The research supporting this Formal Investigation will be conducted in collaboration with a team from the Centre for Human Computer Interaction Design at City University London, led by Professor Helen Petrie.
Speaking today on the announcement of the Formal Investigation Bert Massie, Chairman of the DRC, said:
"The DRC wants to see a society where all disabled people can participate fully as equal citizens and this formal investigation into web accessibility is an important step towards that goal."
Mr Massie continued:
"Organisations which offer goods and services on the web already have a legal duty to make their sites accessible. The DRC is committed to enforcing these obligations but it is also determined to help site owners and developers tackle the barriers to inclusive web design."
Mr Massie concluded:
"In a relatively short period of time the Internet has had a profound impact on the way we live, work and study. It is vital that this new and powerful technology does not leave disabled people behind, but that its potential for delivering a genuinely inclusive society is realised to the full."
The findings of the DRC's investigation are expected by the end of this year.
Diversity World Disability Network
Feature Article: Attitudinal Change
Written by Rob McInnes, Diversity World, 2003
For many years, I have the opportunity to work closely with employers on issues of disability and employment. In recent times, and on several occasions, I have heard employers say that most companies have now effectively dealt with attitudinal barriers and that disability/employment efforts should concentrate on other fronts. In fact, I‰ve heard some job developers and employment specialists say the same thing. I‰m not convinced.
New research from the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development (profiled elsewhere in this Newsletter) once again highlights the enormity of the subjective barriers that still prohibit people with disabilities from effectively participating in the workplace. In this study, over 500 employers where queried about employment practices and people with disabilities.
Among other questions, employers were asked to identify the single greatest employment barrier to people with disabilities. 25% cited employer attitudes as the biggest single barrier. (15% cited employers‰ general reluctance to hire people with disabilities. 5% cited employers‰ discomfort and/or unfamiliarity with disability. 5% cited discrimination or prejudice.) This is supported by a 1999 study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in which 22% of 1400 Members surveyed cited attitudes and stereotypes as a major barrier (to both employment AND advancement opportunities) in their companies. Related to this, another study of 800 employers by Gallup Robinson revealed that 15% of them admitted discomfort with the notion of working for, or nearby, a person with a disability.
As a job seeker with a disability, this is truly a daunting notion that 25% of the people who you will encounter in your job search the people who read your resume, who interview you for a job are likely predisposed to discriminate against you based on their own entirely subjective preconceptions.
As employment professionals seeking to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities or as proactive employers seeking to increase the representation of people with disabilities in their workplaces, this information is of no small consequence. I believe that, in aspiring to inclusive workplaces, attitudinal change is one of the very most urgent and challenging issues that we face.
I think it is tragic that attitudinal issues have been so downplayed in recent years. I think it is sad, even maddening, that so much that goes on under the banner of "Disability AwarenessŠ or "Attitudinal TrainingŠ is so frequently trite, haphazard and/or unprofessional. It is disheartening to see so many companies offering their employees presentations that are selected on "costŠ not "cost-benefitŠ (selecting the cheapest š not the most impactful) and to see this important task of dismantling attitudinal barriers resting on the shoulders of poorly-trained and poorly-equipped personnel from community-based organizations.
Even the best attitudinal training of our day seems rooted in tools that were developed ten years ago in the spirited times accompanying the passage of the ADA š tools like the powerful "Windmills Attitudinal Training ProgramŠ and the engaging "10 Commandments of Communicating with People with DisabilitiesŠ.
In a 2002 study by Susan Bruyere of Cornell University on policies and practices that affect the employment of people with disabilities, employers reported that attitudinal changes are possibly the most difficult organizational barriers to change. 35% of them considered attitudinal change "difficultŠ or "extremely difficultŠ to accomplish.
With subjective employer attitudes looming as possibly 25% of the reason that people with disabilities are still not effectively participating in the workplace, isn‰t it time that we address it, with renewed vitality, in a concerted and strategic fashion?
Read more of this article... :
http://m1e.net/c?16542988-CKmgBqsNRPuk6%40178680-Lkz4nji6y.Hi6
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