Trinity computer science lecturer Mr Alexis Donnelly says graduates with disabilities have proved their worth in the high-tech industry, while Ms Mary Wallace, Minister of State responsible for equality, says it makes good business sense to tap this large pool of labour.

Chronic labour shortages in the technology sector are forcing human resources directors to broaden their search for staff.

This week, efforts were made to draw attention to one option. A series of seminars organised as part of Disability Information Day - sponsored by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the European Commission - highlighted the opportunities IT can create for integrating people with disabilities into the workforce.

The Minister of State with responsibility for equality and disabilities, Ms Mary Wallace, said: "This is not just about supporting disability. The Internet revolution has already allowed many people with a disability to obtain jobs within the industry, to access information and to purchase as never before."

However, it has also become clear that IT companies need to improve access for disabled people in order for these opportunities to be fully seized. Understandably, the statistic that up to 70 per cent of people with disabilities remain unemployed is not one that anyone is keen to draw attention to, even those campaigning or working on their behalf.

Ms Wallace was keen to use the language of optimism in discussing some of the employment issues facing people with disabilities today, particularly in a high-tech economy.

Under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, the public sector must meet a 3 per cent quota of disabled employees by 2002. The private sector is merely urged to meet this quota voluntarily. Ms Wallace said, far from pleading that more private sector employers take on people with disabilities out of a sense of charity, the Government will appeal to their business sense.

"What we're saying to them is not to do this for people with disabilities, but do it for themselves," said Ms Wallace. "It makes good business sense for the Irish IT industry and all other companies to look to people with disabilities (a) as customers and (b) as employees, and the difference they will make to filling so many vacancies, especially with 10 per cent of our population having a disability," said Ms Wallace.

Ms Wallace believes the situation will improve to the extent that it will not be necessary to impose quotas after 2002. Responsibility for employment services for people with disabilities has been transferred from the now-defunct National Rehabilitation Board to FAS. "Employers who go to FAS looking to fill a vacancy will now have access to a whole new pool of people who they might never have encountered," said Ms Wallace.

There certainly seems, in theory, to be no shortage of support and financial assistance for people with disabilities and the employers who take them on.

Since the early 1990s, an Employment Support Scheme grant has been available for employers if the employee has a productivity level of between 50 and 80 per cent of usual performance. At the last count, there were more than 400 companies using this scheme.

A grant for workplace equipment and adaptation has also been available. About 40-50 grants a year have been approved since 1990 and the Government has pledged to raise its £190,000 (€241,400) annual funding.

More recently, terms agreed in the PPF have led to the establishment of a number of other support schemes.

These include a job interview interpreter grant, a personal reader grant for job-related reading and a supported employment programme, for which the Government earmarked funding of £4 million in last year's Budget.

According to FAS, funding requests for this last scheme amounted to more than £13 million this year. Ms Wallace said that while the "carrot" was important, so was the "stick". The Employment Equality Act, signed just over a year ago, prohibits discrimination against employees on the grounds of disability. The Disabilities Bill, due to be published next year, is expected to include a specific section on access to information technology.

Mr Alexis Donnelly, lecturer in computer science at Trinity College, said some Irish graduates with disabilities have become valuable employees in IT companies, spotting barriers to access in products and services much more quickly than others. He said US companies should, in theory, have a positive attitude because of anti-discrimination legislation in their own country.

"A lot of the IT companies here . . . are American, and an American citizen working for an American company in Ireland is actually subject to US legislation. So you find generally that the American companies working in Ireland are a lot more in tune to these requirements."

A critical issue is to raise awareness among IT employers about the support and funding available.

"You must use the workplace adaptation grant before you can hide behind the nominal cost issue," said Ms Wallace. "What we find is that the cost of most adaptations is £5,000 or less, and usually a lot less than that, particularly in IT." Awareness is almost certainly the big issue, said Mr Noel Redmond, a technical support agent with Creative Labs. Visually impaired, Mr Redmond said the help he and his employer got from the National Council for the Blind of Ireland was invaluable in securing his job.

He said that, while the skills shortage in IT is pushing companies to consider people with disabilities, there is still some way to go. He cites a gap of nine months between finishing his last contract and taking up the position at Creative Labs. "That kind of speaks for itself," he said.