Students back disabled workers
A SURVEY in Johannesburg has found that 43% of students believe mindset is critical to success‚ while 86% of respondents feel they can empathise with those different to themselves.
SHA‚ a skills development firm specialising in practical work readiness programmes‚ conducted the lifestyle survey with a group of students to ascertain their societal perceptions on their communities and people with disabilities.
A noteworthy finding revealed a contradiction between how pupils and society perceived each other.
According to the respondents‚ more than 74% felt that they were ambitious and respectful to those around them.
But they believed others saw them as being lazy and arrogant.
Nearly half of respondents felt that a negative mindset was what really limited people in general and not just those with disabilities.
In total, 71% felt that people with disabilities could do the same or just as good a job as themselves. Also, 29% believed people with disabilities were capable‚ but sometimes job specifications would come into play.
Not one participant felt people with disabilities were incapable of being productive and contributing employees.
SHA founder Stanley Hutcheson said that apart from familial examples, 14% of students felt that they were their own best role model.
“This sentiment could be linked to the respondents feeling that our country is not supportive enough to students and people with disabilities,” he said.
But this did not curb a positive outlook for the future‚ with 40% of respondents saying they were committed to gaining their qualifications and a further 33% wanting to establish their own businesses one day.
This spirit of entrepreneurship‚ combined with the fact that 86% of students felt that they could empathise with those different to themselves was a good sign for challenging negative stigmas and stereotypes facing people with disabilities‚ Hutcheson said.
He said SHA had been challenging generalised perceptions about people with disabilities since 2002.
“The fact that our students who took part in this survey have such a positive outlook on people with disabilities means that we are succeeding in the objective‚” Hutcheson said. – RDM Newswire