A workplace inclusive of everyone including people with disabilities can be a challenge and Ort SA hosted a Disability Awareness in the Workplace Workshop in Houghton to tackle that challenge. CEO of Connect, Naomi Schauer defined disability as any long-term condition that affects one’s abilities and can include physical, intellectual or mental impairment.
Schauer said, “Our personal beliefs about disability will determine the way we approach and manage disability in the workplace. We have a responsibility to develop an awareness of our belief systems in order to manage our responses and to ensure minimised discriminatory practices.”
She added that it is imperative for employers to be aware of the guiding principles that are provided in the legislation and more specifically in the Company Disability Policy.
Founder of Itumeleng Sekhu Foundation, Itumeleng Sekhu who survived burn wounds from a candle at 11 months old said just because one looks a certain way physically does not mean they are not mentally capable of doing things. “My scars are more external but I have learnt that a lot of people have scars deep inside them.
“If your scars or wounds have not healed you cannot reach your full potential. The moment you limit yourself with your purpose then you are disabled.”
Sekhu said she wanted to leave people with the words, “There was a candle that tried to burn me, to ruin me, but that very candle lives and shines within me.”
Occupational therapist Marcelle Ziperstein recommended that workplaces frame their policies around equity rather than equality because equity will enable everyone to gain fair outcomes according to their potential.
Ziperstein also highlighted some legislative issues regarding interviewing people with disabilities. “We are not allowed to test only people with disabilities as this would constitute as discrimination, therefore we have to test no one or everyone. A prepared sample of work could be given to an interviewee and the results need to be captured, alternatively, the interviewee could be asked to bring a sample of their work.”
Ziperstein also recommended some reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities in the workplace. She said accommodation is considered reasonable providing, ‘it will not cause unjustifiable hardship to the company. Therefore, it needs to be within the financial means of the company’.
Thus, companies can do so by providing ramps, parking space, toilet facilities and providing support and mentoring among many others.
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