While people with disabilities make up 17% of the Australian population, according to the MFA’s annual DE&I survey only about 4% of our industry identifies as having a disability.
So in the lead-up to International Day of People with Disability December 3, the MFA DE&I Advisory Council is delving into how the industry can grow disability awareness and make workplaces more inclusive and welcoming of people with disabilities.
Here, six media agency professionals discuss what disability means to them.
Jessica Cragg, SEO & CRO Executive, Wavemaker
In January 2017, I acquired autoimmune encephalitis and lost most of my memory from the prior two years, including the first year of my degree.
I spent the next few years adjusting to this new life with epilepsy, reteaching myself that first year, and having a few more autoimmune diseases added to the mix.
Disability for me is nuanced. It’s an ebb and flow, with some days being easy and others truly awful. It means I harbour an unreasonable resentment towards Mondays, which is my plasma infusion day.
That means every Monday I have to insert needles into my stomach fat to keep my antibody levels up. It means taking half a pill cabinet each day to reduce seizures. It means frustration from being measured by tests every few months.
My team knows all this and provides a lighter workload on days where I’ve had seizures, and allowing for flexibility around my specialist appointments during the workday. They truly are some of my biggest supporters and have been great people to lean on.
Ultimately disability means laughing, it means crying, it means feeling a complex spectrum of emotions day in and day out, because I’m still a human being and not defined by it.
The media industry needs to foster an environment where people living with a disability can feel comfortable disclosing that, knowing their experiences will be valued. Where people don’t feel like an afterthought in terms of design, employment, and ways of working, just because they don’t meet the perceived status quo.
We all need an environment where people feel comfortable asking for support, or don’t even need to be in a position to ask. They have already been thought of and the resources, flexibility and support are already in place.
The onus is on the industry as a whole, and we should be harnessing our resources to drive equitable and personalised outcomes. Education can come through completing the MFA SBS Inclusion modules at a bare minimum.
Listening and learning are the beginning, but it has to become action. Documents like a Disability Action Plan are key to making sure it’s part of the business strategy, challenging companies to be better and holding them to their stated goals.
If an industry sticks with the status quo and isn’t challenged to be better, how can we grow?
Petrice Koutsis, Partnerships Trader, UM Brisbane
The idea that people with disability cannot do a certain job due to their condition is to me not a barrier, but a challenge. Prove them wrong and show different ways of working. My disability is invisible, but it does not mean it’s not there. Just because you can’t see that someone is sick, it doesn’t mean they’re not. The biggest thing you can do to support someone with a disability is to listen to them and understand their needs.
In life and our careers, there is not one way of doing things. There are always different ways to complete the same task to achieve the same goal. No two people work the same way in ordinary situations; those with disability are still able to get the tasks done, they just have to do it slightly differently.
My illness – in theory – should have hindered me, kept me quiet but it hasn’t and it won’t. I will always strive to have a voice, and to help others feel safe and feel as though they belong. People need to see that others who have a disability are thriving so together we can eliminate the stigma that surrounds disability.
My illness is a superpower.
James Nicolaci, Client Associate from iProspect
Hi, my name is James. I have a right-side hemiplegia, a significant loss of strength and control over the right side of my body, which has impacted me my whole life.
Individuals’ circumstances and experience with disability can range from inconvenient to life changing, and no single perspective can encompass it all. I try to see it as a challenge, a limitation to overcome with creative problem solving, such as how do I plot my route involving the least amount of walking? Or how do I carry three beers back to the table with poor dexterity?
People often don’t ask or they dance around the topic, but you can always tell what’s on their mind. This is what I would say to our industry about disability: Once you stop treating it as a taboo topic, conversations become a lot more human and engaging as opposed to being treated like you’re in bubble wrap.
In terms of the media industry, things are quite good. I work at a desk either at home or in the office, shops and public transport are all close by. The only thing that comes to mind, is when events have my greatest enemy – lots of stairs.
More awareness and understanding will always be a benefit. With in-house training modules, as well as the SBS Core Inclusion program, anyone can expand their thinking on the subject.
To anyone in a similar position I’d say, just own it. At the end of the day, we’re all just people. How I walk doesn’t stop me from thinking, talking, or working any differently from anyone else and I don’t want it to affect how I’m treated either.
Bridget Wever, Digital Activation Director, Spark Foundry
To make our industry more more accessible and inclusive for people with disability, we need to address three key areas.
The workplace: Workplace accessibility can be one of the first hurdles faced by many people with disabilities during a job hunt. If someone is physically impeded from accessing all or part of the workplace, employers lose out on potential candidates before they even have an opportunity to show their skills and qualifications.
At a time when agencies face high role vacancies and staff churn, it’s a not only shame, but counterproductive to limit the available pool of candidates because of a cumbersome staircase or inaccessible toilets.
The talent search: When we source candidates through referrals from existing staff or internal promotion, we’re limiting the talent pool to people with more homogenous experiences and perspectives.
Partnering with DES providers, posting on disability-focused job boards, and ensuring channels for sourcing talent cover a diverse array of the Australian population are fantastic places to start in an effort to improve representation of people with disabilities in the industry.
Disability Employment Service (DES) providers like APM, Wise Employment and atWork Australia, offer assistance to job seekers with disabilities, including employment assistance and skills development; while Get Skilled Access, founded by Australian of the Year, tennis legend, and disability advocate Dylan Alcott, partners with employers to establish inclusion action plans. GSA’s thefield.jobs job board partners with inclusive employers and job seekers with disabilities to help more than 500,000 Australians with disabilities currently seeking work.
The interview: For a variety of reasons, some people with disabilities may have difficulty best displaying their talents and qualifications in a traditional interview setting. Offering the option to provide resumes in alternate formats, such as video, or the option to request specific interview formats (in-person, phone, VC) or accommodations (skills assessments for those who struggle with traditional interview formats, Auslan interpreter, etc) better caters to people with disabilities who are more inclined to flourish and best convey their potential with minor changes.
Hiring in Australian media is as difficult as it has ever been, while the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is disproportionately high. Here is an opportunity to address both issues.
Gordon Geraghty, Digital Manager, Essence
Disability means “different ability” to me because everyone with a disability has a different ability and is likely gifted in another way.
I have several neuro-disabilities / neurodivergences. Being aware of each one and how I can overcome it has enabled me to excel in both my personal and professional life.
Disability also means hard work. It means working on yourself and working harder to have what many people would describe as a “normal” life. Disability doesn’t take a break and a person with a disability needs to constantly work at it and educate those around them of what they need.
Two months into my current role I told my line manager about my differences and they were so kind and accepting. I waited to open up as it’s easy for people to make assumptions and I wanted others to be aware that I can do my job before assuming the worst. Having talked to more people in my role, it has made me very welcomed and appreciated for being different.
I used to be embarrassed or ashamed of my differences, but as time has passed, I’ve learned to see the positive side of each one and now see those differences as a strength.
Darcy Luscombe, Client Executive, Carat
When people think of disability, we tend to conjure imagery of wheelchairs, access ramps, or perhaps an experience we’ve had with mental illness. We remember the times we’ve felt uncomfortable not knowing how to help someone in a wheelchair get onto a bus or train, or help a blind person read a menu at a restaurant. Mostly, we see the stigma and disability first, and the person second.
My father, brother and aunt are all legally blind due to a condition called Retinitis Pignentosa. I’ve had issues with the phrase “disability” itself for a long time, largely because I’ve never experienced my family’s blindness as diminishing their ability to do anything.
To me, a more apt term would be “differently-abled”. This means having different methods of dealing with the day-to-day challenges that present themselves. It means having to develop both a unique form of independence, as well as a stronger bond with your community and support networks.
One of the main issues for people affected by visual impairment is a lack of understanding from the public, particularly in relation to how effective modern technology has become in removing the barriers that separate able-bodied individuals from those with different abilities.
When I think of my family, I’ve never seen the disability first, but rather all the amazing things they have achieved despite it.
Although we have made extraordinary progress around inclusivity and diversity in the workplace, it seems that disability is a final frontier of sorts. There is still a lot to learn when it comes to disability awareness, and engaging in things like the disability module of the SBS Core Inclusion course is an incredible first step in shifting your perception of disability and creating inclusivity of opportunity.
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