Opening the door just a little wider?
Ludwig Van Beethoven, the deaf composer; Helen Keller, the deaf and blind activist and author; Stevie Wonder, the blind musician; Marla Runyan, the blind professional runner with many national accolades and medals; Sudha Chandran, the amputee who became one of the most acclaimed classical dancers of India; and Steven Hawking, the celebrated physicist who suffers from ALS. Over the years these are names and stories we have come to regard with wonder and admiration and yet a part of us knows that these individuals are very few of the individuals who may have suffered from some form of disability and nevertheless managed to make a mark in the annals of history. What happens to the rest?
Statistics vary from report to report, but one thing that is certain is that persons with disability in Sri Lanka often find it extremely difficult or impossible to become a part of the mainstream workforce.
What types of companies do show a positive attitude towards hiring persons with disability (PWD)? Many of the Fortune 500 companies across the world responded favourably towards hiring PWDs, and in fact, this positive trend could mostly be seen in organisations that tended to have over 2500 employees or organisations in high-growth sectors of the industry. One simple reason for this is that large organisations have the resources and the capacity to provide for the extra requirements of individuals with disabilities. Smaller companies on the other hand have no trained staff to handle the necessary accommodations, and do not have the capability to provide health benefits and other job related benefits.
What prevents companies from hiring people with disabilities? First, individuals with disability might not have the necessary skills, knowledge and abilities needed to fill the available job positions. Secondly, PWDs might be less productive than people without disabilities, and the companies might have to incur peripheral expenses such as higher insurance costs and infrastructural adjustments the office premises might need. Finally, the employer might also worry about how negative reactions stemming from stereotypes and biases of both other employees and customers, might hinder the work getting done.
So why hire persons with disability? What makes the arduous initial adjustment the organisation and its current employees will have to do in the short term, worth it in the long run? To see this, we only need to look at the inspiring personalities and leaders of the world and their life stories. What was the most common element in all these stories? Hardship! Every success story ever found on a bookshelf is littered with lives full of hardships and obstacles and difficult encounters and life situations.
Persons with disability in the workplace bring with them skills and attitudes that cannot be learned through any educational program that could award them mere paper qualifications. Learning to cope with and navigate through difficulties and ambiguous life situations over a long time duration instills in these individuals a capacity for endurance, for appreciation, and of gratitude for the opportunities that come their way, and a willingness to tolerate ambiguity and frustration in the workplace. They are definitely ‘differently abled’.
What is it about hardship that makes stronger human beings and great employees? It is the values and the character strengths that hardships instill in these people that make them valuable additions in our organisation.
Most managers in the current workforce talk about the difficulties in managing and retaining the new generation of young workers due to their impatience and need for quick gratification. They speak of difficulties in employee retention, of wasted training budgets, and of extremely demanding employees. So why not have someone as a part of the team who knows what it is like to be patient?
Persons with disability in the workplace bring with them skills and attitudes that cannot be learned through any educational program that could award them mere paper qualifications. Learning to cope with and navigate through difficulties and ambiguous life situations over a long time duration instills in these individuals a capacity for endurance, for appreciation, and of gratitude for the opportunities that come their way, and a willingness to tolerate ambiguity and frustration in the workplace. They are definitely ‘ differently abled’.
Studies have also found that individuals who have grown up with hardships and in uncertain, difficult life situations outperform their peers in two main aspects: mental flexibility and inhibition. Individuals with high mental flexibility have the ability to quickly shift from one goal to another, and show higher levels of creativity due to this. They have been used to looking at life through different perspectives and this practised skill of divergent thinking could help them in approaching work problems and arriving at creative solutions in the same way. Coupled with this, they also have the skill of inhibitionof being able to tell themselves to hold on for a little longer, to try a little harder, to pursue goals, and have the willpower to stick with things.
By employing persons with disability, the organisation itself could become a mechanism for long term change in the country’s attitudes towards differently abled. The organisation could create a cycle of growth and development for differently abed that will change their status in life and society and add value to the business as well.
If it is a skill problem, train them or fit them in a position where that skill is not required; if it is an issue of productivity, weigh the pros and cons of having a differently abled person in the team. In fact, they may add to the team productivity by increasing the level of cooperation and teamwork because teams that accommodate differently abled are known to be high on morale, authenticity, empathy, loyalty and resilience. People with disabilities also represent an almost untapped talent pool that brings a wide array of experience, expertise and perspective to the workforce. If it is about infrastructure, make reasonable adjustments that are genuinely possible. If it is about stereotypes and negative impressions, address them; send a message of equality with a purpose of inclusion not on humanitarian grounds but on actual value addition by differently abled employees.
As someone who grew up with a sibling with a physical disability, I know one thing. Don’t pity the differently abled; sympathy is not what they need. They need opportunity, a break. Just consider, can we open the door just a little wider?
(The above article is written as a part of the 'Diversity and Inclusion Careers Day 2016' organised by Junior Chamber International Kollupitiya on November 12 at the Barista Museum, Colombo 7, from 9.00am to 2.00pm with 10 or more companies sharing opportunities in the line of diversity and inclusion at the workplace. The author can be contacted on rozaine@forte.lk - www.forteconsultancy.org)