A new employment campaign by the disability charity Scope is putting workplace attitudes to disabled people under the spotlight.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 1002.

Dean Thomas is special, part of a very select group – he is a British world champion. But unlike other British sporting heroes, Dean is not popular on the after-dinner circuit. His name graces no letterheads. He is not asked to sit on advisory committees. He does not run motivational courses. The sport he plays is boccia, and in June the 31-year-old led the UK team to victory at the world championships in Portugal. Boccia is like bowls – but it is only played competitively by disabled people.

Dean has cerebral palsy. He is a wheelchair user with a severe speech impairment. And he says he cannot get a job. Dean left his last employment, as a sports development officer for Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, in February. He had just been through a divorce and found himself having to re-locate. After moving to Nottingham, Dean applied for three jobs – two related to disability access or information provision. He was not asked to attend a single interview.

Dean has had jobs, about six or seven – but they never last more than a couple of years. Even though he has usually been employed to work with other disabled people, a major problem is simply access to buildings and offices in a wheelchair. But that's not all – the real problems have been what he calls "attitudinal". "We always encounter individuals who just cannot deal with disability. People are uncomfortable in my presence. You can see it in their body language. They turn away or sit out of my range of vision. They never look me in the eyes. And they avoid asking me direct questions. It does not make it easy for you to communicate with them."

Dean is the first to admit communicating with him can be a painstaking process at the best of times. "In a meeting, with the conversation moving quite quickly, I do not stand a cat in Hell's chance of putting my point across. By the time I get myself heard the conversation has moved on." As you might expect from a world-beating champion, Dean has developed a strategy for coping. "I raise my hand and make all my points in one go – but it is not participating in the normal way."

A major part of Scope's new campaign is an online survey, to "identify and overcome barriers that prevent disabled people finding work". But while Dean welcomes the initiative, he cannot help sounding slightly sceptical. "Anything that raises awareness can only be a good thing – but you cannot help becoming blasé about another survey talking about something that should already be publicly acknowledged. You can go on raising awareness all you like – but you are not going to change attitudes if people are not prepared to change." Dean believes energies should be channelled into reforming a system that makes many disabled people unwilling to even look for work.

"Even if I am offered a job, before I can take it I have to apply for funding for equipment and to pay for a support worker to assist me. I have to recruit that support worker and I have to train them. And only then can I go into work on the first day feeling vaguely prepared. The welfare system does not help. It is a complete nightmare – so rigid it does not allow for any flexibility or acknowledge people's complexities. When you leave work like I did in February it can take months and months to get back all the benefits you were on before." And then there are the salaries. To cover all the "hidden costs" – prescriptions, transport, equipment – he receives benefit while unemployed, Dean needs to take home about £18,000 a year, which means a salary of £25,000. That's far above anything he could hope to earn in the kind of jobs he has worked in and applied for so far.

But, like any sporting champion, Dean is no quitter. This month, as well as starting courses in web design and accounting, he is embarking on a sports coach education programme. "I want to put my sporting experience to use," he explains. A better job is his aim – but an improvement in attitudes amongst other people is his real hope.

(By Stephen Hawkes)

B Answer the following questions:

1. Why do you think Dean's colleagues never look him in the eye?

2. Which strategies does Dean Thomas use to make himself heard and noticed?

3. What are the barriers that prevent disabled people finding work?

4. Which care and support do disabled people need?

5. Do you think the mentally handicapped should be returned to their families, or accommodated in neighbourhood hostels providing adequate support and supervision?

6. Are there any special facilities for disabled people in your area?

7. Do disabled people in Russia have any privileges or fringe benefits?

8. Do you ever feel uncomfortable in the presence of a disabled person?

C Discuss the following topics with the group:

“We are all just temporarily able-bodied. We don't know what can happen to any of us tomorrow.”

“The biggest enemy in society is a poor attitude ... enhanced by ignorance.”

“Public needs to change attitude to the disabled.”

Dishonest people

D Say whether the following statements are true or false according to the information given on the tape.

E How is theft punished in different cultures?

Can you think of any cases when theft could be justified?

Have you ever felt like stealing something from your friends, parents, or any other people?

Now read the article below and check if you can call yourself an honest person.