Employment

In addition to general communication barriers, we may experience unique communication barriers when working or seeking employment. These include:

• Lack of opportunities in all types of work– full time and part-time employment; ad hoc engagements, and volunteerism.
• Lack of supports for work engagements if we need these (e.g. attendant services, communication assistance)
• Employers unable or unwilling to incur costs of assistant services in addition to our services
• Lack of flexibility to accommodate our requirements in terms of our fatigue and stamina during for a work engagement
• Lack of vocational rehabilitation and employment support services that can accommodate and support our communication methods and / or our communication assistive technology
• Lack of initiatives to create meaningful work opportunities for those of us who cannot find mainstream work engagements
• Lack of collaboration between communication disability services, vocational rehabilitation and employment services
• Lack of information, supports and assistive technology funding sources for those of us who are self-employed (e.g. computers, internet access)
• Lack of work experiences for young people with disabilities, leading to a lack of experience and qualifications for entry-level jobs
• Lack of or inadequacy of insurance benefits to cover medical and dental services, wheelchairs and assistive technologies that may be more fully covered by government social assistance programs
• Paid work may result in reductions to social assistance benefits or loss of subsidized housing opportunities and be inadequate to support living in an accessible market rent apartment.

Resource:

AC News on Employment (2004)