Disability Awareness training is rooted in broadening people’s views and understanding of disability. It is important to realise that a positive attitude towards disability is equally as important as barrier-free physical access; it is vital that you are confident that the attitude and actions of your colleagues and staff is representative of your organisation’s positive attitude and actions.
What would your staff say if posed the following question: Is a wheelchair user’s inability to enter a building fronted with steps attributed to that person’s disability or to the absence of a ramp?
The Medical Model of Disability focuses on the person and the disability as the problem. It suggests that the power to change disability lies with the medical profession who are best placed to take those with disabilities closer to perceived ‘normality’ through the provision of medicines, institutions and cures. This school of thought would very much attribute the aforementioned person’s disability as the barrier to climbing the steps and entering the building.
The Social Model does not focus on a cure as the solution to disability, rather the removal of those social and physical barriers that prevent people with disabilities from belonging to and being valued in their local community. Even though TV, film and literature often persuasively represent Medical Model thinking, anti-discrimination legislation draws upon the Social Model stance. Just two pivotal learning points in Disability Awareness training are:
- It is unlawful for an employer to treat a disabled person less favorably than someone else because of their impairment
- Employers must make reasonable adjustments to any criteria, procedure or practice or any physical feature which may place a disabled person at a disadvantage.
Access by a wheelchair user to a building fronted with steps is therefore required by law.
Disability Awareness training is not only crucial to changing attitudes and presenting disabled people with fair and equal opportunities, it is also fundamental to guaranteeing that you and your staff are complying with law. Only by showing that you took reasonable steps to prevent their employees from acting unlawfully, will the employer have a chance to shirk legally responsible. It is a daunting fact that employers can be held liable for the actions of their employees and the employer can still be held liable, even if they did not approve or know about any acts of discrimination, victimisation or harassment committed by their employees.
By Claudia Cooney | Righttrack’s Sales & Key Account Executive