Key Points
- Sustainable Development Goals are a focus of 2023's International Day of People with Disability.
- The goals include full and productive employment and decent work for people with disabilities by 2030.
- Supported employment and workplace modifications can bring more people into the workforce.
A modified screen at the cash register is one of the main factors that has made the difference between Mitchell Blasdell being in secure work for the past six years and being unemployed.
At the counter at Monte Lupo cafe in Brisbane, a pictorial point of sale system makes it easier for him to navigate what may otherwise be an overwhelming screen full of text for the 27-year-old, who has an intellectual impairment.
Having a screen with pictures rather than lots of text makes taking customers' orders simpler for Mitchell Blasdell. Source: Supplied / People with Disabilities Australia
The theme of this year's International Day of People with Disability, being marked on Sunday, is "united in action to rescue and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for, with and by persons with disabilities".
One of the 17 goals relates to work and economic growth, with a target for “full and productive employment and decent work” to be achieved for all women and men, including people with disabilities and young people, by 2030.
Society's low expectations of people with disabilities
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, while 80 per cent of those who do not have a disability are in the workforce, just 40 per cent of those with a disability are employed.
Marayke Jonkers, co-vice president of People With Disability Australia (PWD) said came "from a bigger, broader community misconception" that needed to be addressed.
"If we have an underachieving expectation of what people who have a disability are capable of and, as a community, if someone who's in a wheelchair like myself is congratulated for being out of the house in the supermarket, that is going to carry over to employment if you're the boss," she said.
Jonkers also pointed out a discrepancy in the type and nature of work done by people with a disability.
Marayke Jonkers, co-vice president of People with Disability Australia, says Australian society will benefit from more inclusive workplaces. Source: Supplied
"If we come from a special school, and we've never been integrated with the community, then you end up in this 'special' employment," she said.
While 32 per cent of people without a disability work in part-time work in Australia, 41 per cent of people with a disability do.
Workplace modifications
A recent report by the Australian government's JobAccess program found that, while some employers had preconceived ideas about people with disabilities being less productive, employers who hired staff with disabilities often found the opposite was true.
The report, released earlier this year, also debunked the idea that hiring a person with a disability was costly.
Jonkers said there was a great lack of awareness of the support available via JobAccess for employers to make accommodations for staff with disability in their workplace.
"You can modify the entire premises, you can provide so that if somebody needs speech to text because they're not able to try or someone has a vision impairment, and you need assistive technology to read your screen to you," she said.
"This can all be funded through the government and you get an employer who genuinely thinks, 'I can't hire you because I don't have an accessible chair lift'."
Supported employment
For Blasdell at Monte Lupo Cafe, like many other and it was made even more difficult due to his anxiety.
What is known as 'supported employment' was what bridged that gap for him after being unemployed for a few years after high school.
Disability support organisation Multicap provided not only a role at one of their operations in Queensland but also job coaches who taught him the skills necessary as a retail/hospitality assistant and provided ongoing support tailored for him.
Blasdell explained that his mental impairment made learning new things take a little longer and that he often relied on lists or prompts to help him focus and remind him what was required to complete certain tasks.
"It's like saying, you [someone who is not disabled] are a 5G network, and I'm running on a 2G or 3G network," he said.
With the modified screen at the cash register, some extra training and supportive colleagues and management, Blasdell has become a productive staff member.
"I have so many people believing in me to be able to fulfil my best self at work and at home," Blasdell said.
He said his role had taught him not only retail and hospitality skills but also life skills, confidence and understanding of the workplace, which he did not have in the few unsuccessful job interviews he'd done in the years after high school.
"Being able to do something to the best of my abilities is something I now look forward to every single day. Like, I may have bad days, but I still want to be able to be like, 'I gave it my 100 per cent best'."
Blasdell now mentors new staff, providing initial job training to others at the cafe.
Multicap employment pathways manager Bec Lowther said the café was one of a number of businesses the organisation operated where people with disabilities were provided a supported pathway into work.
As well as a co-located art studio, it also has an industrial kitchen, three warehouse operations, an industrial laundry and an administration program.
The workers are not only working and earning a wage, they are provided with the training required for them to carry out their roles and up-skill.
As supported employees progress, their job coaches are also able to assist them in the process of applying for roles outside of the organisation, something Blasdell plans to do in the new year.
"Having this job is what gave me the confidence and the belief in myself and I'm now at the point in my employment journey that I'm actually ready to go into open employment myself," he said.
Advantages of hiring people with disabilities
When asked by businesses why they should hire people with disabilities, Lowther said she tells them “Why not? Everyone has skills to bring to a business and people of all abilities deserve to work in their desired field.”
She’s also found that her clients often have a lot of passion for their work.
“Their passion radiates across the business, the morale in a business changes because of that energy — they rarely take their employment for granted,” Lowther said.
Multicap employment pathways manager Bec Lowther says different modifications, prompts and systems help supported employees in a variety of workplaces to carry out their roles. Source: Supplied / Multicap
“Our baristas at Monte Lupo Cafe, they could run rings around some of the guys who give me my morning coffee each morning and they get overlooked because they have a disability, which is why the employment rate for people with disabilities is so low and that needs to change,” she said.
2030 SDG target on workplace inclusion
Jonkers welcomed the idea of having every person with disability who wants to be in the workforce in meaningful employment by 2030 but was unsure the target would be met.
"It depends on how motivated the community and governments between now and 2030 are to put resources and education into making it happen because people with a disability resoundingly, desperately want to be working when they can be.
"It's having the support and advice to make that happen," she said.
When asked about the target, Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth did not say whether she thought it was likely to be reached in Australia by 2030, instead she spoke about a need for a more inclusive society.
"A society where people with disabilities have better access to transport, education, healthcare and housing — all of which will help someone find employment. And importantly, shifting community attitudes so that the focus is not on what a person with disability can’t do, but what they can do," she said.
"It will take everyone in society pulling together to achieve that."
Rishworth said the federal government had published new Good Practice Guidelines on the best way to support organisations to engage with people with disability and expected to see a Disability Employment Centre of Excellence operational by 2024.
"We’ve announced numerous initiatives including the introduction of the Disability Employment Services Quality Framework, broad reforms to Disability Employment Services, and just last week a new pilot with the Business Council of Australia and Australian Network on Disability," she said.
