Work and disability
©Kathy Smith: Oct 1994 - Health Care News

"It is unfortunate that persons with disabilities are still being discriminated against. It's an obvious fact that if anyone had the courage to admit they had a disability, they would not remain in their job. There are mechanisms to help exclude people from work and make them want to leave," says Duane Hoffman, coordinator of the Victoria-based Work and Disabilities Project.

"We want to help persons with disabilities retain their dignity and their employment. The workplace should be a setting where there is an equality of opportunity," he says. "We've not only been able to develop our project, we've met our goals."

The Work and Disabilities Project has been in existence since March of 1993. The Victoria Labour Council, in cooperation with the Victoria Career Development Society, developed a community-based project to address the mutual concerns of workers with disabilities, labour, and management groups. The project's mandate is to improve services for all workers - primarily in unionized workplaces, as unions set the standards that are followed by all workplaces. The project also provides services to the private sector as well.

"People we have come to the label as workers with disabilities are not included and accommodated in our general work environment," says Hoffman. For example, workers with disabilities may not be able to physically enter a building to attend a job interview.

"Significant numbers of skilled, competent people with degrees, credentials, and certificates remain under-utilized and unemployed in our communities." This kind of segregation is what distresses Hoffman the most. "If we start integrating all people within our school system, then we could integrate our publicly funded programs," he says.

And Hoffman applies the partnership model to this project. His colleagues include workers with disabilities, labour and management advisors, and interested parties. Together, they go out into the workplace to teach others the partnership model of integration and how to adapt it to the work system. One major challenge they faced was teaching unions how to rewrite collective agreements to better serve workers with disabilities.

On September 23 and 24, the Victoria Labour Council sponsored a 'Work and Disabilities Conference' at Camosun College. The purpose of the conference was to discuss, compare, and examine all the approaches currently used to integrate persons with disabilities into workplaces. Various topics covered included Human Rights and Disability, Collective Agreements and Disability, and Segregated and Integrated Training Environments. Speakers from consumers (persons with disabilities) to government employees presented information.

The conference setting was a comfortable, supported environment. Persons with disabilities were well accommodated. For example, there were volunteer aids on hand to assist those with vision and hearing limitations, and physical and mental disabilities. As well, there was a quiet room set aside for anyone to take a break and rest during the proceedings.

"There has been real interest on the part of the people who have received services from us," says Hoffman. "But talking is not getting it done." It is hoped people left the conference with a fresh perspective on this situation. With new information and awareness, further opportunities will be secured by workers with disabilities.