The following is a transcript of the
Workplace adjustments and solutions media file. To view the media file, click on the link below. You will need Windows Media Player to view the file. If you don't have Windows Media Player, you can download a free version from the Windows Download Centre—see our Related Links. Downloading the software can take a while on slow Internet connections.
Workplace adjustments and solutions—media file (3.76MB WMV)
Transcript
Assistance is available to help with the cost of workplace adjustments or solutions if they are needed to accommodate a worker with disability in a job.
John Bennett, Director of Engineering at Benbro Pty Ltd says: ‘We've generally found that only minor workplace modifications are required. For example, we've had some minor hand rails put up to assist people at the top of the stairs—and they were put up by some of the other guys who have a disability’.
At Elynwood Pty Ltd, the Catering Manager, Jo Spiteri, states: ‘In the catering division we've done things like provide people with trolleys to assist them to move things from one place to another. Also, it helps with the lifting—they don't need to lift as much, so less risk involved’.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Coordinator of Hunter New England Area Service, Emma Davies outlines several examples of workplace modifications and adjustments that have been carried out in the organisation: ‘We have a hearing impaired employee, so we just need to make sure that we're actually face to face when we're speaking to them, tap them on the shoulder if you're going to approach them from behind’.
‘In another area, we have an employee that's dyslexic, so putting things on different coloured paper and just making sure that they understand the instructions that they're given’.
‘And another employee just has a learning disability, so we make sure that there's assistance provided to them for tutorial support, things at TAFE, to help them through their studies’.
‘The only modifications we've been required to make really to enable these guys to work for us have been to learn some sign language, which in many ways has been a bonus’, explains Darryl Marshall, Managing Director at Perth Regional Roof Trusses. ‘It enables us to communicate whilst there is quite a lot of noise in the factory’.
Emma adds ‘We, as an organisation, pay for any workplace modifications but we have access to funding arrangements as well through the government, so we do access those. It shouldn't make other people wary of employing people with disabilities because in a lot of the instances the price on the modification is very little, so it's not a huge cost to an organisation’.
More information?