Today is a very special day – its International Day of People with Disability (IDPWD) – and everyone across the world is uniting to celebrate the achievements and contributions of people with disability.
At the heart of IDPwD is the need for greater inclusion of people with disability in society, and today many fantastic events taking place in each state and territory with that objective in mind.
But to create a truly inclusive society – where no one is left behind – inclusion needs to be part of our daily dialogue and embedded in everything we do.
That’s why this year, as part of our recognition of IDPwD, Life Without Barriers launched our Employment Without Barriers campaign last week. The campaign aims to break down the barriers that people with disability face with gaining meaningful employment.
While 1 in 5 Australians have disability, only half of those of working age have a job and the unemployment rate is twice as high, at 9%, as the rate for people without disability. This means an unacceptable number of people are missing out on the personal, financial and social benefits a job provides.
We want to ignite cultural change in Australian workplaces and our campaign aims to encourage employers to challenge their recruitment practices and understand how they can eradicate discrimination and bias to create more inclusive workplaces.
Employing someone with disability is not just the right thing to do; it makes good business sense. It gives organisations greater diversity, which inspires innovative thinking and better decision making through a variety of perspectives.
At Life Without Barriers, our doors are always open to people with disability. We are proud to be an accredited Disability Confident Recruiter through the Australian Network on Disability (AND). This means we are unequivocally committed to ensuring our recruitment and selection processes are accessible to people with disability.
