Episode 32: Designing inclusive employment

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0:00 Carers Queensland announcement: Do you have a talent or passion to share with the world? A small business can be a great way for people with disability to earn income, build your confidence, be more independent, and be an active part of your community.  Carers Queensland is supporting our next generation of entrepreneurs with the Be Your Own Boss Microbusiness Project.  It’s a place to find out what it means to start a business, whether it’s a good fit for you, connect with business mentors and learn from existing microbusiness owners, and even opportunities to showcase your goods and services in the Be Your Own Boss Marketplace.  Find out more, get in touch, or look for events and opportunities coming up near you: visit our website at carersqld.com.au, or call our enquiries line on 13000 999 636. 

0:53 Introduction: Choice and Control, a podcast celebrating people with disability brought to you by Carers Queensland, NDIS Local Area Coordination Partner in the Community. 

Joe-Anne Kek-Pamenter is a graphic designer, and a researcher focusing on access, inclusion and employment for people with disability.  Her advocacy grew out of her own experiences getting – and keeping – jobs as a person with hearing impairment.   

We did this interview with Joe-Anne via email, so the voice you’re about to hear belongs to Kelly, another woman with a similar disability.   

Joe-Anne says she’s not the only person in her family with hearing loss, and when she was young it wasn’t that big a deal. 

1:31 Joe-Anne Kek-Pamenter:  I lost part of my hearing aged 16.  It never really bothered me, as my younger brother also lost his hearing and having grown up with him and seeing him thrive and supported by our family and others, I knew I would be OK.  Unlike my brother, who lost his hearing very suddenly aged four, my loss was very mild and I was able to manage for over a decade quite normally.  But as the years passed my hearing slowly started to decline to the point where I needed hearing aids and other communication supports.    

Whilst every person who is Deaf or hard of hearing is different, I experience difficulty when having conversations, whether face to face, online or using the telephone. Noisy, low-lit environments where there are multiple conversations happening at once also present challenges. Whilst I hear much better with my hearing aids I use lipreading and body language to follow along with conversation, so as can be imagined, the advent of COVID-19 and mask wearing has also been a challenge. I suffer from listening fatigue in noisy environments, or places where I need to wear my hearing aids and be alert for long periods, such as education or work. I often get painful headaches, earaches and infections, particularly in summer with the humid Queensland climate.  Overall, my hearing loss has never been something that worries me personally, and any disability or challenges I feel is imposed on me by the environment and persons around me not being inclusive or accommodating.  

 2:56 Jodie van de Wetering: So Joe-Anne, what barriers did you face with finding employment?  

 3:00 Joe-Anne: I am very ambitious and have worked since I was a very young girl, starting in my family’s business where my hearing was never an issue. It was only once I relocated away from my family home in a bid to further my career that I even noticed I had a disability. 

Support in the workplace was not something discussed early in my career, and I just made do as best I could, given what support, compassion and understanding was offered to me in-house. I had two long-term jobs in education and training for over 17 years, where I felt very stable and supported. I obtained many qualifications along the way, including my degree – fully online with CQUniversity – which I passed with a straight set of high-distinctions, a perfect GPA and won a faculty medal.  

It wasn’t until I got a new manager in a job held permanently for 11 years that things started to become more challenging.  Within a few weeks of her starting, I noticed that I was being excluded in a way I had not been previously. She was not patient with communication, excluded me in meetings, removed many resources I had been given to support or aid me in my work, paid my overtime late, denied me professional development opportunities and essentially blocked my career progression. After speaking up, I found myself made redundant. It was a very sad time.    

I undertook some more study and found another excellent position with a large, well-known employer. It started out fine and I felt welcomed by my colleagues, however it became apparent that my manager was much like the last, and despite preaching equality she certainly did not practice it. I don’t like thinking too much about this period, as it was extremely tough and changed me from the very positive, happy and confident woman I had been to a shadow of my former self.  

Whilst I tried my very best to be resilient – even taking up martial arts training to help with my mindset under the toughest coach – it is true, especially on this occasion, that it takes more than one person to make the effort.  In this case, I found myself on a path I never ever want to travel again. Even though financially things were tough, life is too precious to be treated in this way and I set out to dust myself off and start again – which is always easier said than done, especially for someone with a disability!  

I searched for a new position that aligned with my skills for two full years, and off the back of this had only four interviews. I had been open and honest about my disability on my application, and in hindsight, I do not recommend this. Like all clouds however, everything has a silver lining, and I was fortunate to obtain my absolute dream role as a senior research assistant and graphic designer with The Hopkins Centre, and Griffith Inclusive Futures: Griffith University, an institution that prides itself on inclusion and accessibility.  

 5:45 Jodie: And what are the barriers for people with a disability to finding employment?  

 5:51 Joe-Anne: A staggering one in five Australians, or about 4.4 million people, are living with some form of disability, 2.1 million of whom are working age. However research by the Productivity Commission has found that people with disability are among the most disadvantaged in Australia, with low participation rates in employment resulting in reduced income.  

Statistics tell us that 38% of people with disability live on or near the poverty line, and that 93% of working-age people with disability who are unemployed or not currently in the labour force are finding it difficult to find appropriate work for a variety of reasons.  These depend on the individual and nature of the disability and associated ill health, but the most common barriers include inaccessibility, financial restrictions, lack of skills or education, lack of recognition of qualifications and academic performance, age, too many applicants for available jobs, or insufficient experience.  

In some cases the disability support pension is also barrier, as many people are hesitant to let go of government supports, or may have been out of the workplace for so long they may lack self-confidence or have concerns about their ability to go out and become financially independent long term.   

Other factors behind a lack of employment opportunities include blocked mobility, unavailability of workplace adjustments and, sadly, discrimination, exclusion, attitudinal barriers, and negative stereotypes. It is these factors, among others – including the need for accessible workspaces, flexibility and hyperpersonalisation of work – that has left people with disability either excluded from employment entirely or forced into menial jobs that do not match people’s skills and experience.  Meaning people with disability find it more challenging to reach their career aspirations, dreams and goals.  

I have worked with people with disability for over twenty years and many people I have spoken to, myself included, have been discriminated against in the workplace. Many people with disability are high-aiming high-achievers.  We are also excellent problem solvers and extremely resilient.  I guess it is through sheer frustration and exhaustion with vocational employment that people with disability have little choice but to start their own businesses, a course of action that researchers have called “necessity entrepreneurship”.  

The Australian Government recognises that people with disability can face many and sometimes overlapping barriers to employment, which prevent their full social and economic participation in Australian society.  And whilst there has been significant investment directed at addressing these barriers through the Department of Social Services, the NDIS, JobAccess and other schemes, more work needs to be done.   

8:38 Carers Queensland announcement: Everybody has rights, but sometimes it’s not easy to speak up and advocate for yourself. It takes confidence, resilience, knowing your rights, and knowing someone has your back. Be The Voice You Want To Be can help.  It’s a free program from Carers Queensland for people with disability.  It’ll build your skills, and help you be a strong advocate for yourself, your family and friends, maybe even your community.  Along the way you’ll build a peer network, so you have a squad to support you speaking up.  Find out more, get in touch, or look for events and opportunities coming up near you: visit our website at carersqld.com.au, or call our enquiries line on 13000 999 636. 

9:29 Jodie: So could you tell us about the projects you are working on now, to ensure people with disability can succeed in developing their own business and become entrepreneurs?  Now, this includes the Dignity Project, involvement in Enabled.VIP, and your new pilot research through Griffith University on empowering entrepreneurship for people with disability. 

9:51 Joe-Anne: My employment at Griffith University is split across two roles. I am a graphic designer, and project officer with Reimagining Disability: Creating Inclusive Futures, Griffith University’s new research beacon.  

I am also employed with the Hopkins Centre as a senior research assistant.  In this role, I am a researcher for HabITec – a socio-technical space to see, experience and co-design technology – and the community hub manager of the Dignity Project.  The Dignity Project is a research and community building agenda aimed at disrupting stereotypes and breaking through barriers that people with disability experience every day.  The project wants to inform disability report for the future, and will learn from the past and stories that would otherwise remain unheard.  Through stories, we can illuminate future possibilities, but also pathways that should never again be travelled.  

Dignity through employment is a project area within the Hopkins Centre's research program.  The aim of this project area is to advance our understanding of pathways to greater economic participation for populations with disability in Queensland, with an emphasis on those who have sustained moderate to severe disability because of injury, predominantly brain injury and spinal cord injury.  

In our research for this project, the team aims to understand the barriers to traditional employment, entrepreneurship, and the self-employment pathway for people with acquired disability.  And specifically, whether this option forms part of the suite of support for vocational rehabilitation currently available along the rehabilitation continuum.  This project will explore existing supports, best practice, and gaps that exist, along with the knowledge and awareness of what is needed, with the view to change the way support staff and people with disability or acquired injuries think about the pathways to economic participation.  

We will also partner with Enabled.VIP, a virtual business incubator for people with disability where I volunteer on the advisory board, to explore why someone from this population group may benefit from a move towards self-employment or entrepreneurship, and what resources might be required to support a successful outcome.  

In addition to my work at the university, I am also a freelancer and have my own small business which I run with my husband Justin, a screen and media and education professional.  I mostly focus on projects that are related to disability, education, and accessibility, and have been fortunate to work on two amazing projects in the last twelve months.  The first was with the Australian Disability Clearinghouse for Education and Training, where I teamed up to co-author and design a guideline: “Supporting Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students Online”.  More recently, I teamed up with a group of talented women from Media Diversity Australia to design the “Disability Reporting Handbook”.  More than two years in the making, this detailed handbook has been produced by a team of media professionals with lived experience of disability in collaboration with peak Disabled People’s organisations to guide better newsroom reporting of people with disability.  Bbut in reality it is a handbook that all people should be using in the workplace.  In designing and writing this handbook, we made sure we lived by the golden rule: nothing about us without us.  

13:08 Jodie: Why is it important for businesses and employers, on their end, to be more inclusive and accessible in the workplace?  And what sort of things can they do to support people with disability on the job? 

13:20 Joe-Anne: All businesses and employers should be giving people with disability equal opportunity and access, to apply for and be seriously for, any role for which our skills, qualifications and experience makes us a suitable candidate.  Just like any other recruit, employment provides many benefits, including being financially independent, gaining self-confidence and self-esteem, and the ability to reach for individual aspirations.   

 However, being inclusive doesn’t stop at recruitment.  Once employed, it is important for businesses, where financially feasible, to give people who identify with disability the safe space and support they need to be able to ask for adjustments and assistive or adaptive equipment.   

JobAccess is an excellent program run by the Australian Government, separate from NDIS, that supports employees and employers with workplace support.  This could be by way of subsidising equipment, technology, or support such as headphones, captioning, modified desks, magnifiers and so forth.  JobAccess can also arrange occupational therapists or technology experts to visit the business, to provide assessments on what support may be available as well as providing inclusion training to staff.  The aim is to create an inclusive culture that accepts, values and engages everyone, so everyone feels like they’re valued and included in society.  This is something that needs to be modelled throughout Australia, not just in employment.   

14:47 Jodie: How is technology important, and how has that changed for people now working from home during the COVID situation over the last few years?  

14:51 Joe-Anne: The coronavirus pandemic took us by surprise and led to a rapid transition to online communication, remote employment, and distance education at all levels.  The challenges of providing accessible and inclusive online environments were many. Online environments need to be accessible for everyone. A wide range of individuals benefit from the provision of highly accessible, inclusive and carefully considered online environments.  Te focus, therefore, should be on good design for all users.    

Prior to this year, I worked in an open plan office environment.  These tend to be busy and noisy places at the best of times, with conversations, phones ringing, and people passing by my desk.  As a hearing-impaired person who struggles to hear over top of noise or when using the telephone, this made communication near impossible.  Team meetings were another area of concern for me, and I found it hard to follow, and by the end of every day the listening and concentration fatigue I experienced affected my energy levels.    

I was only a few days into my new role at the Hopkins Centre at Griffith University when COVID-19 forced us into work-from-home mode.  This was actually really welcome news, because as a freelancer I have been working from home for many years and have my home office set up with the accessibility I need. Working from home is also a comforting experience for those with disability for many different reasons.  But importantly, I feel that it creates a more level playing field.  

Accessible and adaptive technologies have played a huge role in my life and career. When I got my first job, my employer bought me one of the very first mobile phones with SMS capabilities. I was so excited; I could not wait to show my family. I remember, at the time my dad organised the whole family to get mobile phones so we could communicate via text messaging. It was life changing.  

A decade or so later, we had a similar experience when I got my first Apple iPhone and discovered FaceTime, and now we have powerful online conferencing software such as Microsoft Teams, which has captioning, which has been absolutely life changing.  

Despite the sad reality of many people becoming unwell and being isolated, the benefits are that it has changed the way we are now able to work or study in a more flexible and remote way. This has been great for many people, but for people with disability it has been life changing.  The ability to participate in activities remotely from home with the aid of amazing new technologies such as video conferencing has added a level of accessibility that was previously not available.  

Working or undertaking professional development in this way also has the benefit that people can be flexible with their routine.  Some people function better at different times of the day, some others need medication and may need to rest and then come back to work later.  For others, working from home is perfect as they have their home set up in an accessible way, and may also have their support person come in to help out.  This gives people with disability so much more opportunity to participate in activities, without worrying about barriers such as a daily commute, navigating the inaccessible built environment, or trying to fit in with traditional timelines.  

Working remote and in a more flexible way is great for people’s work/life balance. Health and wellbeing is something I take very seriously, and no matter how busy I am I always make time to move and stretch my body daily.  Being fit and active, as well as having a daily dose of sunshine and fresh air, is not only great for the body but also for our mental health – particularly during these strange times. 

18:18 Jodie: If you’d like to get involved with the Dignity Project, if you have experiences you’d like to share to make sure everybody's dignity is respected in the future, you can get in touch by email at dignityproject@griffith.edu.au. 

Thanks for joining us at Choice and Control, a Carers Queensland podcast.  For more information about the National Disability Insurance Scheme or Carers Queensland, contact us online: carersqld.com.au.  You can call us on 1300 999 636, or head to Facebook and look for “Carers Queensland NDIS”. 

 

Mentioned in this episode 

• The Dignity Project 
• Reimagining Disability (Griffith University) 
• Media Diversity Australia’s Disability Reporting Handbook 
• ADCET Guidelines: Supporting Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students Online 
• HabITec 
• Enabled.VIP 
• Carers Queensland website 
• Carers Queensland upcoming events and workshops 
• Carers Queensland NDIS on Facebook 

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