Hypocritical attitudes towards disability in the workplace revealed
Shocking new research reveals a staggering three quarters (76%) of Australians agree that workplaces need to be more inclusive when it comes to hiring people with a disability. However, three quarters (78%) also believe that having a disability leads to discrimination in the workplace. Not ideal for the one in five[1] Australians living with a disability is it...
This ironic contrast is highlighted in new research by the Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia (TSAA). Despite a quarter (24%) of employed Australians agreeing that their workplaces could do more to embrace diversity, one in two (47%) admit they would have a problem working alongside someone that had involuntary tics, such as screaming or yelling. A further 42% wouldn’t be happy working alongside someone with a physical or swearing tic.
The neurological disorder Tourette Syndrome presents as motor and vocal tics and this out-dated attitude towards those living with Tourette Syndrome unfairly limits the opportunities available to them in the workforce. Sadly, two thirds (69%) of Australians with a disability admit that it has impacted their ability to get a job whilst a dismal 4% of the population have worked alongside someone with Tourette Syndrome.
With discrimination in the workplace a hot topic this year, the research further found less than half (47%) of all Australians had worked with someone with a disability. Of those, a quarter say their colleague with a disability wasn’t given the same opportunities as everyone else (26%) and were treated differently (24%).
To coincide with Tourette Syndrome Awareness Week (3rd – 9th May), the TSAA is encouraging Aussies to ‘tic’ the box on inclusion and embrace disabilities in the workplace by sharing a selfie of themselves or their colleagues with the hashtags #ticthebox and #TSAW21
[1] https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/national-inquiry-employment-and-disability-issues-paper-1#:~:text=Almost%2020%20per%20cent%20of,females%20report%20having%20a%20disability. |
