Becoming a Disability Confident Business
An Australian website has just been launched to provide businesses with "information, tips and advice on becoming a disability confident business for both employees and customers". The site, disability confidence, compliments a new publication "Opportunity – the business case for including people with disability as customers and employees". Both site and publication were developed by the Australian Employers’ Network on Disability and sponsored by FaHCSIA ‘Opportunity’ is available free of charge for download or in hardcopy.
The site has published some interesting facts:
- Among the OECD countries, Australia is currently ranked a disappointing 13 out of 19 in employment rates for all people with disability.
- According to ABS figures, 20% of the Australian population, almost 4 million people, have a disability .
- About 2% (400,000) Australians have an intellectual impairment.
- 2.2 million people with a disability are of working age and a million of these are already in the workforce. More than one third are employed in professional, managerial and administrator roles
- Employees with disability actually have fewer scheduled absences than employees without disability as well as increased tenure.
- The number of students with disability enrolling in Vocational Education and Training (VET) has almost doubled in less than 10 years”, Dr Mark Bagshaw, Co-Chair, National VET Disability Advisory Taskforce.
- The Australian workforce is facing a major labour skills shortage, with a shortfall of 195,000 workers predicted from 2009 onwards
As well as providing information and facts, the advantages of employing those with a disability and developing accessibility for disabled customers are stressed. The arguments for doing so are compelling – "By realising human potential and addressing disability-related exclusion we will create a sustainable society. Taking advantage of this opportunity will result in far reaching benefits, not just for individual businesses, but for Australian society as a whole." (Opportunity p13)
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We are fortunate that our kids are healthy. But I do think that our country should give more help to people who as special needs. Such as make the key boards the way that disable person could use it. Such as people could type using their feet! Or while people typing they could be able to hear what they type in case they could not see. Also, more social benefit should give to them and have them pay less tax, etc.
In my experience it is very beneficial as an employer to hire people with disabilities. There are a number of reasons that I will happily relate, hopefully without offending anybody. This is only my opinion and only based on limited experience, not any factual scientific studies. But, in my humble opinion, my employees with disabilities show up for work on time, consistently, with a good attitude, ready to share their knowledge and input, thankful to have a job and willing and able to pull their weight each and every day with the goal of helping the business succeed. When they do take off on short notice it is for legitimate reasons, and not due to self inflicted issues. I have too many employees that are not considered “disabled” in some physical way, yet do not seem to care about the welfare of the company that employs them, do not come to work prepared to pull their weight as they are hungover or tired from partying outside work and do not add to a positive atmosphere in the building. I do not know if this is because my disabled employees have seen much worse and therefore take everyday life with a more positive outlook, or are just more grown up due to their poor experiences, but, I find them much more pleasant to see at work each and every day.