Disability Discrimination In The Work Force

Disability refers to the state in which a person may be physically or even mentally impaired. Impairment may limit a person from performing certain tasks. Disability may either be in form of a terminal disease or physical like the inability to use some parts of the body. People with disability have for quite some time been sidelined especially in the carrying out of public duties. Discrimination has especially been rampant in the working areas and in job markets. There has been believe that physically or mentally challenged persons are unable to perform tasks like the other persons. Another form of discrimination is the racial discrimination.

Person subjected to this kind are often thought inferior to their counterparts. This may subject them to rejection in job markets regardless of their qualifications. Despite the many laws relating to the rights of the disabled persons, employment rate is still high rated as current estimates have discovered. The issue of discrimination has raised concern especially with organizations which protects and fights for the disabled human rights. It has been found out that many physically challenged individuals have the capability to perform similar jobs with other persons. They also compete fairly in the job areas.

There is thus need to create favorable environment for such individuals. Challenges faced by the disabled persons at work places A study conducted in March 2008 by David Grinberg on job discrimination showed an increase of 9% in a p of five years. Out of this, 14% were disability related discrimination. Job places have been identified as areas where physically and mentally challenged persons are highly discriminated. To begin with, to get a job for these people takes much longer than for their counterparts. Employers are usually prejudiced and end up turning off disabled persons even when they qualify for the jobs.

This has led to high levels of unemployment for the disabled persons, (Grinberg & Nazer para. 2). Potential employers also site the lack of facilities to accommodate them. They argue that the cost of accommodating them is high which may only mean additional cost to the businesses. They are afraid that the disabled persons may not perform as expected which may lead to a decrease in their output thus profitability. Also most building has not been constructed in a way to accommodate especially the physically challenged persons. This poses a major obstacle even to the potential employers (Grinberg & Nazer para.3).

In the jobs however, the situations are not much different for the disabled. They suffer discrimination from they colleagues at work and even sometimes from their employers. This is usually notable by the exclusion they face from the social cliques of other employees. They are also looked down upon and the environment is usually not so conducive for them. They also tend to be segregated from the major activities in their work places. This has led to high turnover for the disabled and even worse a low morale in their work. Promotion for the disabled also comes in hardy in the job areas.

Though they perform fairly the same with their counterparts, or even sometimes better as research has discovered, their labor is barely recognized by their employers (Barnes, et al pp. 27). Harassment in job areas for the disabled is also high. For a long time, the disabled have been equaled to beggars. Some employees feel that they are helping the disabled and it’s not really for job purposes. They thus end up threatening them with dismissal with others demanding for special offers from these kind of employees. Harassment has also been seen in the area of granting leaves and in termination.

Most disabled persons are rarely granted family leaves and when they do; their allowances are scrapped off (Australian Public Service Commission para. 3). This has led to a cry of justice in the recent past with people calling for enactment of laws to protect the disabled. Ignorance of the rights of the disabled has also led to an increase in harassment behavior in the job areas. The disabled persons are unaware of the set rules which protect them from these practices. Other forms of harassment may include comment or actions aimed at demeaning their subject or conduct meant to intimidate its target person (Barnes, et al pp.34).

Sexual harassment on disabled person at work places has also been reported. Employers take advantage of especially the mentally challenged persons to exploit them. This has challenge has been camouflaged by the lack of well coordinated government and welfare associations. The aggrieved parties thus do not know the right channels to use to seek for assistance (Barnes, et al pp. 43). Most mentally disabled person face challenges in the work place because unlike their counterparts, they tend to be slower. The organizations have not set up enabling environment to accommodate them.

This has in turn lead to criticism and accuses of laziness. Such persons are demoralized as they are led to believe do not measure up to others. Physically challenged individual also find it hard in areas where they are restricted due to their disabilities (Australian Public Service Commission para. 4, 5). Most offices for example have no places for wheeling the wheel chairs making it impossible for these persons. Others affected by office arrangements are the blind. Many organizations lack facilities for them and if they do, they are rarely updated. This makes the disabled to lag behind in matters of technology and information.

Most disabled person also requires adjustments in their working hours. This however is not provided in the job places thus posing a major block to this people. There are also few job varieties available for the disabled persons. This leads to high potential of them being under-utilized. This jobs are most often low paying and with low prospect of promotion (Australian Public Service Commission para. 8). Apart from job related areas, the disabled are better talented in other areas than their counterparts. However, this potential is always not recognized as they are not included in the organizations out of office activities.

Also, whereas the management offers training to the other employees, this is not so with mostly the mentally and visual challenged employees. The management sites high costs for such training thus rendering these employees unproductive and inefficient. For the physically impaired employees, no arrangement is done for them to attend job related seminars. This diminishes their chances of promotions (Daniel pp. 4). Disabled persons also face problems of low esteem at work places. This is because they are led to believe that they are less endowed than their counterparts.

This in turn may lead to poor performance which ultimately leads to dismissals. Interpersonal relation between the disabled and the rest is characterized by prejudices from both sides. This leads to formation of unhealthy social classes thus tension at work places. Many laws have so far been passed regarding the plight of the disabled. The public seem to be ignorant of them; this calls for public awareness and education on how to handle people with disabilities. However, the physically, mentally and visually challenged persons have a role to play to ensure that these practices are done away with in working places (Daniel pp.7).

Disability should not be a reason to make one look down his abilities or even allow other to do so. They should work to ensure that all the prejudices surrounding them due to disability are eliminated (Taylor pp. 12, 13). They should also learn to fight for their rights at job places. Disability rights should be well explained to the employers as well as other employees to ensure that such conflict does not arise in job areas. Conclusion The government should ensure that they set up agencies to look into the plight of the disabled persons.

These people should also be synthesized on these matters and encouraged to seek legal actions against a person violating their rights. The employment laws should also be revised to ensure the correct working environment is created and the necessary adjustments are made to accommodate the challenged persons. Employment agencies should also be set up to help link the disabled persons with potential employers. Managers should also be given funding and other support necessary so as to reduce the costs associated with employing the disabled persons (Taylor pp.17).

Lack of proper and up to date information to the disabled persons has also been noted as a major drawback at the work areas. The government should ensure that these people are taught relevant and current affairs so as to be competitive enough at their work areas. Organizations should also set measure to ensure that all the employees are well represented in all educational issues. This would help raise the morale of the disabled persons and as well help improve the inter-relations among all employees.