It was a delight to speak with Mark Wafer while he was in Humboldt, where he made a presentation about inclusive and disability employment during Disability Employment Awareness Month (See full story at humboldtjournal.ca).
Hearing him talk about the triumphs and successes of his advocacy work was at times heartbreaking.
The pain people have endured because of their disability is frustrating to even hear about, and must be worse for people who live through it and those who work to support them.
People with disabilities make up 17 per cent of the Canadian population.
This untapped labour market consists of people are eager to work but who face some big challenges and yet provide some huge benefits to businesses.
Often workers with disabilities have fewer absences. They are often safer at work as well, as they know their limitations and are fully aware of what they can and cannot do.
The most important message that Wafer had for people to remember, which many people seem not to realize, is that people with disabilities are not disabled as soon as they walk through the employer’s door. They are living with their disability long before they go out looking for a job and they know how to live with their disability.
Yet people see the disability itself as reason enough not to hire someone.
Think about what you would be doing right now if you were not working.
People who are fully employed do not often think about this. Changing jobs or being laid off may cause some nervousness, but we do not often think about what it would like not to be able to find work at all. For someone with a disability, who does not have the same opportunities as those without, this may be their reality every day.
While we often complain about being busy at work, and some days it is hard to get out of bed, think about if that job was not there for you.
Think how it would feel to not be working. To have to fight for the right to work. To have to worry about whether an employer is going to take advantage of your disability or not. To wonder whether or not that employer will even give you an opportunity because of your disability.
Wafer had plenty of stories to share about people with disabilities he has worked with or met, as a business owner, a person with a disability, and an advocate for inclusive employment.
He says it’s not about creating new opportunities for people with disabilities. It is about getting them into the workforce, having them fill positions that are already open with employers who are already looking for workers.
It is about creating that environment where people are judged for their abilities, not their limitations.
Wafer did not sugarcoat the need to create a culture in which employers promote inclusive employment. He said the culture has to come from the employers, and noted some government initiatives have led to more harm than good.
Programs such as wage subsidies and positions created just to hire people with disabilities have led to people being taken advantage of.
“The employer does not value subsidized employees nor do operations managers who see an ‘us’ and ‘them’.
“More important, though, is what can happen when the subsidy runs out.”
Some employees lose their position as soon as the subsidy ends. Others are “hired” as unpaid trainees.
Wafer illustrated this point with the story of a woman who started work as a wage-subsidized employee. When the subsidy ended, she continued to work as a dishwasher, unpaid, for 19 years.
That employee is now receiving back pay, and the employer is no longer in business, but the fact that people are willing to take advantage of these situations is heartbreaking.
Employers need to see the benefits of inclusive employment before the culture will change and that will take a culture where people believe in and promote disability employment at the business level.
