Disabled students believe they don’t have equal work opportunities
- Published on 22 Jun 2015
- HR Pulse News Desk
A survey has found that 52% of disabled students do not believe they have the same opportunities as others in the workplace.
The survey by skills development firm Stanley Hutcheson & Associates (SHA) also found that 87% of respondents were considered by the general public to be less intelligent than their able-bodied counterparts. More than half (57%) also believed that on a whole‚ South Africa could do more to support the disabled community. Other findings showed that 44% of participants believed that there was a major attitude difference in how peers and the general public perceive them‚ and 75% did not require special assistance at home and used public transport such as taxis and trains. Other interesting insights revealed that students whose disability was not physically apparent‚ such as those who have corrective eyeglasses or had mood disorders such as bi-polar, were not treated all that differently in general. However‚ this was not the case for students whose disabilities had much more visible attributes such as limb deformities or severe osteoporosis.
The significance of these findings can be linked to the apparent reluctance of South Africa’s public and private sector to consider people with disabilities as viable employees. It could explain why, according to research conducted by the University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Social Development in Africa (CSDA)‚ 68% of adults living with disabilities have never looked for a job.
