Employment for the Handicapped

Workshop Leader:
Pat Israel, Assistant Manager,
AG Neale

Approximately 85 per cent of disabled persons are unemployed. Architectural barriers, archaic attitudes, inadequate education, and expensive aids are seen as the prime causes. In many ways, the new technology will help disabled persons to overcome these barriers. Activities such as shopping and banking will become readily accessible through the home terminal. Homework will reduce traveling problems. Changes are urgently required, however, if the new technology is truly to serve the disabled:

• Career planning, well adapted to the specific needs of the clientele.

• Flexible work hours for everyone, with emphasis on results, rather than amount of time spent on the job.

• Insurance protection for the firms that hire handicapped employees. (Insurance companies currently do not offer such coverage.)

Action: Educational institutions and other agencies serving disabled persons should concentrate on teaching them how to use micro technology as a tool for various skills. . To favour the autonomy and mobility of individuals, central agencies, such as tool and aid banks, could be set up by employers. . As individuals and groups, we must lobby governments for legislation to amend the different and unequal work rules governing hiring of handicapped employees.