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THE LAST WORD

June/July 2012 www.esb.ie/em

ALTERING PERCEPTIONS, CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS

Ann Heelan, AHEAD Executive Director, speaks to EM about promoting equality of education.

Founded 20 years ago by students in Trinity College Dublin and UCD, AHEAD (Association of Higher Education Access and Disabilities) works to promote equality of educational and career opportunity for people with disabilities.

“Blind students in the two universities found that they couldn’t get access to course texts and so on and decided to do something about it,” says AHEAD executive director Ann Heelan. “They set up AHEAD to assist in the development of support services for students with disabilities in the colleges.”

Things have changed greatly for the better over the past two decades, however, and the focus of the organisation has shifted more to the workplace. “We are one of the few organisation that looks at the issue at second and third level education and in the workplace,” says Heelan. “There has been a huge change in the colleges over the years. All of the higher education institutions now have disability support officers and they are really very good but what we are seeing now is graduates coming to us telling us they are finding difficulty getting jobs despite having all the necessary qualifications for them.”

Sadly, this is due to a negative attitude towards disability that remains all too prevalent in society. “A lot of what we do is about changing attitudes and perceptions and challenging assumptions. There is a belief that people with disabilities can’t do the job. We work with graduates with disabilities and get them meeting employers and we try to get the employers to see beyond the disability to the talents and the different abilities the graduates have to offer.”

A particular area of difficulty that has emerged is where third level courses have a work placement element early on. “Students with disabilities are now going through the school system and into third level with relatively little difficulty”, Ann notes. “However, in areas like nursing where the course has a work placement in year one the students do experience problems. For example, we have encountered a situation where a nursing supervisor believed a student nurse with dyslexia posed a risk to patients.

They set up AHEAD to assist in the development of support services for students with disabilities in the colleges

“We are working with the nursing profession and have developed guidelines for what can be done and what cannot be done.”

Indeed, dyslexia is the single most prevalent disability among students. “About 60% of disabled students have dyslexia. And dyslexia is a hidden disability and that can be a problem for the person concerned. They can be very bright and articulate people and can be accused of being lazy and so on in the workplace because of their difficulties reading. Quite often the worker is afraid to disclose their disability just in case it goes against them. What we are encouraging is the development of situations where people are happy to disclose a disability secure in the knowledge that it won’t go against them.”

She points out that it’s a case of convincing the employer the person can do the job. “Quite often it’s just a piece of software or a small change in the workplace that’s required to allow them do the job as well as anyone else. For example, there is a piece of software called TextHelp Gold which people with dyslexia use and it is extremely good.”

And these changes can benefit the entire workforce and not only those with disabilities. “We have seen that when flexibility and different tools are brought into the classroom to aid students with disabilities that all students benefit”, says Heelan. “People bring all sorts of skills and abilities to a job and workplaces benefit from being more diverse. Everyone should have the same opportunity to get an education and a career and the whole of society will benefit from this.”

AHEAD works to overcome prejudice and promote equality of opportunity through a variety of programmes including the Traineeship Programme for People with Disabilities, which is now in its seventh year and is set to run until at least 2014; the Building the Future careers fairs; the Willing Able and Mentoring (WAM) programme to prepare graduates with disabilities for the workplace; and support for individual workplace initiatives such as ESB’s Resilience Programme.

ESB works with AHEAD in a number of ways and is hosting a WAM leaders event in September and has received a WAM award in recognition of being an employer that builds sustainable disability confidence through its traineeship programme.

“We work close with key Irish employers like ESB on the WAM and other programmes,” says Heelan. “Graduates with disabilities are leaving colleges with degrees and qualifications every bit as good as anyone else but aren’t getting shortlisted for jobs. We work with employers developing competence based CVs and job specs. We walk the line with employers and support them all the way. The WAM programme involves people in organisations volunteering to be mentors to people with disabilities before coming to work for them.”

This is particularly important because many graduates with disabilities are at a disadvantage because they have never worked in paid employment before and therefore may be lacking in confidence. “We are working at building up their confidence and preparing them to enter the workforce. The programme has been so successful that several HR managers have said they are considering introducing it for all recruits.”

Looking to the future she believes the situation is improving. “Fifteen years ago less than 1% of Irish students had disabilities, that figure has now risen to 3.8%. The situation is improving in the workplace as well but it is more difficult in the recession. But we are making progress. Slowly but surely Ireland is becoming much more inclusive.”