After picking up a disability, one of the biggest difficulties can often be found at the workplace.
While many employers will do their best to accommodate employees facing new physical challengers, ultimately some disabilities make certain jobs completely untenable.
Even then, finding a new job that can meet a new set of physical requirements often presents its own challenges.
But some companies are working to change that.
“Opening your doors to people with disabilities is not an onerous or scary endeavour. It’s becoming more commonplace,” says Dan Lajoie of the Independent Learning Centre, a Kitchener-based organization which provides support to disabled people in Waterloo Region.
That support even extends to the ILC’s own employees. Lajoie has spinal muscular atrophy and needs a wheelchair to get around, but he’s able to work as the ILC’s peer resource and advocacy coordinator thanks to automatic doors and a microphone-controlled computer.
“Oftentimes when you have a disability, it’s difficult to find your niche, somewhere that you can make an honest contribution to society,” he says.
Dolphin Digital Technology is one company coming up with solutions to that dilemma – starting right in their own backyard.
Dolphin specializes in virtual computer networks, which allows a company’s employees to access the same digital workspace without being in the same location. It’s a service they use themselves, as many Dolphin employees rarely meet face-to-face.
“We have literally made ourselves available to be inclusive of anyone out there and bring them into us, virtually speaking,” says Dolphin employee Jamie Burton.
Steve Hendry had trouble finding a job, because his cerebral palsy posed a difficulty for many employers.
“They tend to look at the crutch that I use to walk with as a potential barrier to my ability to do the job,” he says.
But that disability wasn’t a problem for Dolphin.
“We all work together in a virtual work environment in a virtual office space, which allows us the opportunity to work from home,” says Hendry.
Back at the Independent Living Centre, Lajoie holds up Dolphin as a model for other employers to follow.
“They’ve set an example of what it means to employ people with disabilities, of how you can have a fully functioning and successful business using that as your mandate,” he says.
Dolphin’s commitment to promoting workplace support for people with disabilities extends to the annual disabilities mentoring day they hold in early December.
