Employers' role in day for disabled hailed

MORE THAN 100 employers who took part in the first national Job Shadow Day were acknowledged yesterday.

Several hundred physically and intellectually disabled people participated in the Job Shadow Day on April 23rd.

It was launched by the then taoiseach Bertie Ahern to highlight the skills and talents that people with disabilities bring to the workforce.

The job shadow involved accompanying a worker for a day as they went about their tasks. One intellectually disabled woman Lyndsey Mallon shadowed Senator Fergal Quinn during a day in the Oireachtas.

Senator Quinn is the patron of the Irish Association of Supported Employment (IASE), which initiated Job Shadow Day.

The day was set up, not only to highlight what disabled people can give to the workforce, but also to encourage employers to expand their horizons to recruit employees.

Disabled people are 2½ times more likely to be unemployed than able-bodied people.

Among the companies that participated in the first Job Shadow Day were Hewlett Packard, Dublin City Council, UPS, Fás, Wyeth, Starbucks and the Dublin Dental Hospital.

Their participation in the event was acknowledged with the presentation of plaques to the employers involved at an event in Stewarts Hospital, Dublin, yesterday. Miriam Tighe, of Employ Ability Ltd (a Fás-funded supported employment scheme) which supported the Job Shadow Day, said it had been a major success and would be repeated.

“There was a lot of buzz about the whole initiative and a number of people who participated in the day have been offered employment as a result of the initiative which was a great, if unexpected, result of the day,” Ms Tighe told the gathering.