Every organisation has some responsibilities towards disabled employees, we define disability, discuss the role of organisation and see what steps they can take to ensure that disable people can work without any mental and physical hurdles.
What is a Disability?
Disability can be defined as something that limits
a person’s ability to perform a mental or physical action. Most people are born
with disability and that’s due to genetic disorder but many others can acquire
it because of an accident or illness.
Role of an Organisation
For an organisation, understanding the needs and
requirements of a disable person is extremely important. Having certain
policies and making reasonable adjustments can help them to work better and
feel at ease within the workplace.
Workplace Adjustments
A workplace adjustment is the change of working,
practices or procedures that can help a disable employee to perform their job
with minimum hurdles.
Some of these adjustments can include allowing them flexibility with timing during working hours as they may take more time to
complete a task. If a person is finding it difficult to perform their duties,
it makes sense to redistribute the duties and gradually train them to do the
job. It will also help to have a person supervise or mentor a disable person.
Having a workplace that is suitable for a disable
person is also important, simple steps such as moving furniture, providing a
ramp or having wider doors are also extremely beneficial.
Specific Disabilities and Solutions
If we talk about specific disabilities and
solutions related to them, then some of them include;
· Mobility Impairment
o Use of ramps, automatic stair and lifts instead of
walking stairs.
o Adjustable workstations and appropriate equipment.
· Blindness of low vision
o Magnifiers for reading printed material.
o Zoom text options.
o Braille printers and machines.
· Deafness or hardness of hearing
o Hearing loops
o Text based material and captioning.
· Mental health
o More breaks
o Regular meetings
o Frequent supervision
· Learning disability
o Using Personal Digital Assistants (PDA)
o To-do checklists
Disability legislation
Some of the other set of guidelines that can help
regarding disability issues for New South Wales are as follows;
- National Standards For Disability Services (NSDS), 2014
- NSW Disability Inclusion Act 2014
- Mental Health Act 1958 and Protected Estates Act 1983
- Disability Services and Guardianship Act 1987
Overall, every individual has different
capabilities so it makes sense to ask the person if they are facing any
difficulty and what can make things better for them. Most of these steps do not
cost as much as expected but can contribute a lot towards
the well-being of a disable person.
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