TORONTO – John Huynh doesn’t mind being the poster boy for disabled people fighting discrimination in the workplace — if it helps eliminate the problem.
The 35-year-old marketing analyst has neurofibromatosis type 1, which causes him to walk with a limp, changes skin colour and causes the growth of tumours.
Employed since 2001, Huynh has felt the stigma faced by the disabled in the workforce. He applauded a new study highlighting the bias and misguided conceptions about those with disabilities.
The BMO study, conducted by Pollara Strategic Insights, found half of Canadians believe a potential employee is more likely to be hired if they are able to mask a disability.
Discrimination
The study concluded 62% of respondents believed those who can hide their disability are more likely to be promoted and that there are too many myths held by employers which keep the disabled under-represented in the workforce.
Mary Anne Jackson, a 50-year-old full-time IT product manager — whose lower right arm was amputated at birth — said things have never been easy for her in the job market.
“I feel as a person with a disability that you always have to prove yourself because people doubt you have the ability. It is what you can do and not what you can’t do. There needs to be more communication.”
While retired, John Rae — who is blind and vice-chairman of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities — knows all too well how common stories like those of Huynh and Jackson are in the workforce.
“Their feelings aren’t unusual. In my mind there is wide-spread discrimination. Studies have debunked myths that people with disabilities are less productive and that there are greater safety risks,” Rae said.
Another barrier for disabled people is many jobs they would qualify for are contract positions without the life-line of benefits, said Sandra Carpenter, executive director of the Centre for Independent Living, which is run by disabled people.
There are too many taboos about discussing disabilities in the workplace by employers, job candidates and employees, said Sonya Kunkel, managing director of diversity and inclusion at BMO.
The study found there is a belief among employers that the costs of employing a disabled person are very high.
One-fifth of disabled employees require no finical accommodations and the average cost for most is in the range of $500.
Almost 70% of employers in the study overestimated the cost of employing a disabled person to be in the range of $10,000, the study said.
Kunkel added businesses need to review recruitment practices and partner with organizations that connect disabled people with job opportunities.
In 2011, the province implemented the Integrated Accessibility Standard Regulation program requiring organizations to establish a process to be accessible for the disabled from recruitment to retirement, said provincial Economic Development Minister Eric Hoskins.
The Pollara study relied on a sample of 1000 Canadian adults and is considered accurate within 3.1%, 19 times out of 20.
This situation happens all the time in many different places of business, to read more from this article go to The Toronto Sun.