Hart: Request for comments: Possible public inquiry on employment and disability issues
From: Timothy Hart [thart@med.usyd.edu.au]
Sent: Tuesday, 14 September 2004 12:44 PM
To: disabdis
Subject: Request for comments: Possible public inquiry on employment and disability issues
To whom it may concern
My name is Timothy Hart the Disability Coordination Officer for Northern, Central and Southern Sydney, the Disability Coordination Officer (DCO) Programme seeks to assist people with a disability move between school, vocational education and training and higher education, to succeed in their chosen studies and move to suitable employment by providing information, co-ordination and referral services for people with a disability. The Northern, Central and Southern Sydney Disability Coordination Officer position is hosted by the Centre for Developmental Disability Studies at Ryde.
I wish to register my support for a public inquiry by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission into the issues affecting equal employment opportunity for people with a disability in . As I believe that a public inquiry is the only way to bring to the attention of the Australian public and 's policy makers some of the problems and difficulties people with disabilities face in gaining employment. Thereby, some of the barriers surrounding employment for people with disabilities can be broken down and adequate public policy can be developed surrounding employment for people with disabilities.
There are several issues in particular that I believe that a public inquiry should examine:
Education and training issues:
Skill development:
As most students with disabilities do not have the time or capability to study and pursue other avenues in life, such as casual work, before completing their studies they often do not develop the same skill base that their peers do. In particular those skills which they did not pick up in their studies which they require to undertake the employment they have chosen as well as maintaining their employment.
There need to be additional programs/courses that develop workplace skills for students with disabilities with in the postsecondary education environment which they do not currently pick up through their studies. There is a need for further research into this.
Career guidance/development:
Currently most students with disabilities are more concerned with what is required of them today and tomorrow, giving little for to their future beyond that. As a result they can finish their tertiary education with no idea of what they want to do beyond that.
There is a real need within the schools, years 7 to 10, for adequate career counselling which takes into account the student's disability, hopes and ambitions so that from the earliest opportunity they can be moving towards a attainable career goal. Furthermore, this career counselling/guidance need to be versatile enough so that if the student's ambitions change their future path can be easily remapped.
Mentoring programs:
Mentoring programs seem to be away of enhancing the employability of people with disabilities however they require ongoing funding so that they can be further developed and the necessary research done.
Work placements:
Programs need to be developed to encourage work based skill development and work experience for people with disabilities however there are a number of impediments to these within the legislation, like (OHS) and work experience insurance issues in some states.
For those students who do work place placements there are added problems. Normally these placements enable the student to come to terms with the work environment and develop some of the necessary skills that the job requires. However in some cases a student with a disability's work capability will be assessed solely on the perception of the student's disability before the student has been given an opportunity to attempt the necessary work. While this is not unusual within the sphere of employment for such a negative assessment of a person with a disability's work capability, this can cause unnecessary stress for a student if they have been informed of the negative assessment before commencing work. There is always the fear that these unfounded assessments can find their way onto the student's academic record as a report by the work placement supervisor goes on the student's university file.
Inequality in Education and Training:
There is a desperate need for proper and ongoing research into the areas of disability service delivery for people with disabilities within the education and training environment. Especially the effects of disability service delivery on employment outcomes for students with disabilities. There is an enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that students who do not receive adequate services during education and training not only have poor education outcomes but poor employment outcomes.
Assisted/Adapted Technology:
Assisted technology is increasingly providing good academic outcomes for students with disabilities and to some extent good workplace outcomes for people with disabilities however access to assisted technologies is limited due to the costs involved. Furthermore there has not been adequate research done into the area of assisted technology and people with mild disabilities. While there is anecdotal evidence to indicate that assisted technologies are of enormous benefit to people with mild disabilities not enough research has been done into what programs/technologies benefit people with disabilities in the workplace or the educational setting.
I thank the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission for this opportunity to comment on the proposal of a public inquiry on employment and disability issues. My contact details follow below.
Sincerely
Timothy Hart
Timothy Hart
Disability Coordination Officer
Northern, Central and
Hosted at
, Faculty of Medicine,
The Centre for Developmental Disability Studies
Street Address: , Ryde
Postal: Ryde NSW 1680
Telephone: 02 8878 0514
Fax: 02 9807 7053
:
Email: thart@med.usyd.edu.au
New DCO initiative:
The Australian Adapted Technology User Group (AATUG)
http://www.aatug.answd.com/