Employing Disabled People

If someone applied for a job at your organisation without the requisite educational background or training you would likely not take a second look at their CV. However, most disabled people in Sri Lanka did not get the chance to attend even basic schooling – let alone graduate from University. Due to a lack of access, educational opportunities for disabled people are few and far between… and therefore the disabled applicants for jobs are often under qualified – even if they have good experience.

At an employment event last week organised by ECSAT in Galle, I met a number of job seekers with disabilities and got into a lively debate about the job market and the difficulties people experience when they try to enter the world of work. The biggest gripe was that employers seem unable to look beyond paper qualifications, and experience is undervalued in the job market. Many experienced people with disabilities have struggled to be where they are today, and have a drive and dedication that non-disabled people in the same position often do not. They have often worked their way up and had to prove themselves time and time again in the face of discrimination and other attitudinal barriers present in society.

However, the other side of the coin is that some disabled people are employed as ‘trophy’ workers – maybe to show that the employer is benevolent and open-minded, while the actual work that they do is inconsequential. One friend of mine was employed in an office where the management simply told her to sit quietly because she would be paid anyway even if she didnt do any work, since she was disabled!

Employers need to look at the their motivations for employing disabled people.  They must be sure that the individual is going to be able to do the job and contribute to the company – but at the same time there must be recognition that the individual may not have the same paper qualifications as their non-disabled counterparts. This is not the fault of the job seeker, but of the society that does not give access to disabled children to quality education. Employers must also recognise that is is their responsibility to make their workplace accessible – whether that is physical accessibility in the form of ramps, computer programmes for the visually impaired etc, or attitudinal accessibility in the form of ensuring other staff are briefed on how to ensure the new employee is used effectively and not discriminated against.

Last week, we saw many disabled people with qualifications, experience and hope… and now it is up to employers to ensure this hope does not fade by recognising the unique qualities disabled people have to offer, and ensuring they are welcomed into the workplace to contribute alongside their peers.

Mainstreaming Disability

I believe in mainstreaming. Nothing frustrates me more than seeing a development project or initiative that disabled people can’t access.

In some cases it is because of physical inaccessibility – such as no ramps for wheelchair users or no sign language translator for Deaf people. Other times it is institutional , with governmental and non governmental bodies having policies that discriminate against disabled people. Finally it can be attitudinal, where people implementing the project don’t support the inclusion of disabled people because they think they are less able, or want to over protect them, or just don’t even consider that they should have the same access as other – non-disabled - people.

So many development organisations say that they work with disabled people and include them in their programmes, but when you talk to their staff in detail you realise it is more of an afterthought, and in practice there are no formal procedures for checking inclusion in general projects. More likely, there are special projects to address the needs of disabled people – and most do not understand that this is not inclusion but maintaining separate programmes for disabled people.

It is estimated that 80% of a disabled persons needs can be met by mainstreamed general programmes, whereas only 20% of their needs should be covered by special programmes. Of course this will not be the same in all countries and all contexts, but in Sri Lanka now this percentage is certainly the other way round.

More on mainstreaming later…

Terminology – the big debate

Disabled? Differently abled? Impaired? Retarded? So many terms have been used, and so many connations go along with them – negative and positive depending on who you talk to, where you live and when you talk about them.

I remember thinking in the nineties that I was so modern and up to date using the term ‘differently abled’ because it implies we all have abilities and that the abilities of disabled people are just different rather than inferior.

More recently I have understood that most disabled activists prefer to refer to themselves as ‘people with disabilities’ or ‘disabled people’ because these terms more clearly place the burden of responsibility on society rather than on the individual. The problem with ‘differently abled’ is that it refers to the differences of the person themself to their peers, whereas with ‘disabled’, the emphasis is on being disabled by society and the barriers within society that stop disabled people from accessing the same quality of life as their non-disabled peers. The ‘impairment’ of a person refers to their specific physical or intellectual issues, so it can be said that a person with an impairment is disabled by society.

At a conference in Bangkok there was major dissatisfaction with the World Health Organisation using the term ‘retarded’, with ‘intellectually disabled’ being the preferred term. Other terms such as ‘special’ and ‘slow learners’ have also become less popular in recent years as an understanding of the social and rights based models of disability have grown.

In Sri Lanka there is a wide range of terminology still used. Many people with disabilities say they prefer to be called ‘differently abled’. In many cases, this is because they have not been exposed to new thinking about the rights of disabled people and therefore dont understand the thinking behind international activists when they campaign for the use of the word ‘disability’.

The pride in being disabled that has been growing in western countries, and claiming of previously negative words such as ‘crip’ are a long way off in Sri Lanka and other Asian countries, but with increasing awareness about the social and rights-based models of disability this will certainly change.

So what targets in 2010?

2010 feels like a clean slate. 2009 has been so difficult for so many people that I can only believe it is going to get better in 2010.

Personally I have a number of goals:

1. Research quality of life in Sri Lanka and use this to assess the differences between quality of life of disabled and non-disabled people in the country.

2. Work with Agith Perera to develop more awareness about accessibility. I have promised this before but this year I will keep my word and make sure we do something together.

3. Develop tools for use by INGOs and NGOs so that once they have undergone training on mainstreaming disability in development they have concrete tools they can use to make it happen.

4. Continue to develop ECSATs training capacity to make more of a difference to more people in the south and across the island.

5. Work more on mainstreaming within the SPHERE standards. I worked on this last year but must now consolidate this learning and experience by writing up at least a draft manual that can be commented on and eventually used by others.

Sounds like I am maybe biting off more than I can chew. Maybe – but life is short and I have to start making some real impact on the way development is being done, and teaming up with like-minded people to put disability on the development agenda as a cross cutting theme!

If you have anything to contribute on any of these then do get in touch – would be great to hear from you.

Resolutions, targets and dreams

Well hello wordpress! I seem to have been talking and talking about disability in Sri Lanka, mainstreaming disability into development and all related issues – but no typing to date.

So this is where it changes. The first day of a new year AND a new decade. A time of fresh starts, new targets and resolutions… and the perfect time to start blogging about disability and development in Sri Lanka. I always get dreamy at the end of the year when I think of all the time stretching ahead of me and what I can do with it. So heres to making the dream of mainstreaming disability in Sri Lanka a reality.

A little about me… I have worked in disability-related jobs throughout my life and started an organisation called ECSAT in Galle in 2005 to mainstream disabled people into all aspects of community life. I also manage The Ability Foundation in Colombo and have lectured at the University of Kelaniya on ‘Living Disability’. I have been working hard to develop training packages for NGOs and INGOs so they can start to mainstream disability into their development programmes, and am focused on making a real contribution to the adoption of disability as a cross cutting issue across all development projects and in the SPHERE standards!

I realise I have already used some jargon here and promise to keep this to a minimum in the future. Dont want to alienate you all before I have even started!

OK – thats enough for now. Look forward to writing and exchanging ideas in future about disability and development.