Being a minority in a minority

Never in my life have I represented a minority, and I do not claim to represent one now. I want to get that straight before I begin, because anyone who knows me or has seen my photograph sees a very average, working class, young woman who has never really experienced anything like what it would be like to be part of a minority. However, given the fact that 2/3 of my colleagues have a disability, I am getting a slight taster into what it means to be part of a minority.

The good news is that disabled people are now more likely to be employed than they were in 2002. Great. But the dark side remains. Non-disabled people are still more likely to be taken on by employers than people with disabilities. This gap in employment represents over 2 million people. There is still a very real absence of people with disabilities in the workplace, and while there is work being done by corporate companies to actively eliminate this absence, this work itself has been subject to controversy.

Graduate schemes and post-grad application forms are a routine part of university life. So when an acquaintance of mine loudly announced she was disgusted that her graduate scheme application form indicated that people with disabilities did not need to attend an interview while those without a disability did, everyone knew what she was talking about. I’d seen the indication myself at the bottom of numerous forms and applications. But what does it really mean?

Thankfully, our lecturer happened to hear the remark, and proceeded to explain that while there are more people with disabilities than ever before getting grad schemes, there is still a proportional imbalance in their representation. Corporates therefore engage in this type of profiling to ensure that for our kids, who will be attending university in the future, there is an accurate representation of minority groups. This doesn’t just apply to people with disabilities, but for people from ethnic minorities too.

The more I thought about this, the more complicated the idea seemed to get. Was it a form of discrimination? Was it working for the greater good? The answer, of course, is simple. This kind of profiling needs to happen in order to eliminate the stigma that people with disabilities are unfit to work, that they live of benefits, or any of the other rubbish that is believed as a result of the absence of people with disabilities in the workplace.

With this in mind, I am reminded how truly refreshing it is to work in a place where people with disabilities make up the majority of the workforce – and not through forced profiling, but through choice. As a travel agent who specializes in creating holidays for people with disabilities, it only make sense that the staff should have a love of travel and should have experience of travelling with a disability. Who else understands the travel needs of people with disabilities than people with disabilities? I think I rest my case.