you apply for work the evening before you get it a call from the manager wanting to interview you, everything is going great and he wants you to come in the next day for an interview until you mention you are in a wheelchair and suddenly the walls come down. He tell s you to come in anyways and the next morning just before you leave here your e-mail program beep! You're on your way out the door and figure okay I'll get it when I get home you then are right for your interview only to find that the manageris not there and the assistant manager does not have the employment application for you to fill out . Basically you waste a couple hours and what's worse the assistant manager tells you they are still hiring, and when you get home you can find the e-mail sent that morning saying the position has been filled.
And because of what the assistant manager said you knows is not true, everything was going fine until you mentioned your wheelchair. And there is the job ads you answer, that say to drop off your resume. The only problem is when you get there. No wheelchair access to the store and the manager shrugs their shoulders and says oh well Rogers chocolate in Gastown is an example of this they had a help wanted sign right now in their window and no wheelchair access even for customers or so it seems and unfortunately this situation is nothing unusual.
There are a lot of stores in the gvrd that are like this despite the human rights act the store operators or building owners cannot be bothered to put in a simple plywood ramp for wheelchairs. I spoke to one lady who is disabled and uses a cane, she does taxes in new Westminster and a lot of her clients are disabled people in wheelchairs she told me she is asked and asked her landlord to put in a simple plywood ramp so her customers in wheelchairs can get into her office and he keep refusing because it would cost him a few hundred dollars ! What is wrong with our society that gives so much lip service to empowering our disabled citizens yet when push comes to shove the same society and individuals are not willing to back up their words with actions
Monday, April 30, 2007
Saturday, April 28, 2007
interview backtracking
you're looking for work, you've been stuck on the $850 a month disability allowance the government pays you.
You have struggled to get training so you can work, and now you're looking for your first job
.You have the qualifications and you send out your resumes! And now the employers start calling you to come in for interviews. And everything is going fine and the employer is interested in your job skills over the phone then you mention you need a chair access , or you are an amputee, and then backtracking and excuses and withdrawal of the interview start !!
In the USA employers know that if they pull this sort of nonsense a disabled person can go to the local Americans with disability office, and file a simple complaint and the employer will have to answer some questions about their hiring practices they do not want to.
Unfortunately here in Canada employers know all they have to face is the human rights act, and the human rights commission the federal government runs and even then employers know it can take years before a complaint gets before the commission and even then their chances of winning are very good. The laws here in Canada really do not protect our disabled citizens. About 2% of the estimated million people here in Canada that are classified as disabled work, the other 98% most are capable of working with adaptive software or with minor workplace modifications but unfortunately our society still seem to have the Victorian mentality when it comes to the disabled of out of sight out of mind.
The ironic thing is employer is that routinely hire disabled people, and truly are equal opportunity employers have found that their disabled workers are usually the best workers they have, the most conscientious, and the hardest working.
The only program Canada has for employers use a program called the opportunities fund
employers do not get tax breaks or incentives in our country for hiring our disabled citizens unlike in the USA it has improved somewhat, over 40 years ago but it still needs further to go!
The disabled have the same dreams hopes and aspirations as our able-bodied citizens, when are we going to let them become full members of our society. Heck I just had to fight the government for over a year in order to get the right to return to work because I am now in a wheelchair and classified as currently disabled
You have struggled to get training so you can work, and now you're looking for your first job
.You have the qualifications and you send out your resumes! And now the employers start calling you to come in for interviews. And everything is going fine and the employer is interested in your job skills over the phone then you mention you need a chair access , or you are an amputee, and then backtracking and excuses and withdrawal of the interview start !!
In the USA employers know that if they pull this sort of nonsense a disabled person can go to the local Americans with disability office, and file a simple complaint and the employer will have to answer some questions about their hiring practices they do not want to.
Unfortunately here in Canada employers know all they have to face is the human rights act, and the human rights commission the federal government runs and even then employers know it can take years before a complaint gets before the commission and even then their chances of winning are very good. The laws here in Canada really do not protect our disabled citizens. About 2% of the estimated million people here in Canada that are classified as disabled work, the other 98% most are capable of working with adaptive software or with minor workplace modifications but unfortunately our society still seem to have the Victorian mentality when it comes to the disabled of out of sight out of mind.
The ironic thing is employer is that routinely hire disabled people, and truly are equal opportunity employers have found that their disabled workers are usually the best workers they have, the most conscientious, and the hardest working.
The only program Canada has for employers use a program called the opportunities fund
employers do not get tax breaks or incentives in our country for hiring our disabled citizens unlike in the USA it has improved somewhat, over 40 years ago but it still needs further to go!
The disabled have the same dreams hopes and aspirations as our able-bodied citizens, when are we going to let them become full members of our society. Heck I just had to fight the government for over a year in order to get the right to return to work because I am now in a wheelchair and classified as currently disabled
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