Ms Christabelle Feeney:

There are but I will not name them because I do not want to get into trouble with any of the companies that I do not name. There are some. I do not know that there is somebody doing absolutely everything right. To be honest I do not know if that is humanly possible for all of us. This is an evolving area. Among the examples I have is a large organisation that has what is called an employee resource group. It has multiple such groups. One represents people with disabilities or allies people with disabilities with the organisation in the same way as there might be an LGBTQI+ network. It utilised its internal network to look at the processes it has in place. Instead of just utilising its employees to come out on awareness days and say, "We have this event on. Is the organisation not brilliant?", it actually says let us get feedback, a real critique of people who have come through the process and understand the barriers that exist. That is something that companies are not often comfortable with doing but it gives the best results.

The other organisation that comes to mind is not as large. It is a retailer. The work it has done in this area is exceptional. It implemented the reasonable accommodation passport which we relaunched last year with IBEC and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU. With the passport the company ensured that it had a clear process for employees within the organisation and new recruits who come into the organisation who might need a reasonable accommodation request. The person can ask for that and a process exists and a document is filled out. It is agreed what will be put in place. A scenario arose from that whereby an individual who was neurodiverse had only started working on the shop floor and a customer came up to that person but they walked away. The customer took great umbrage at this and made a complaint that the individual was rude. What had actually happened was that the individual had not been correctly trained and did not understand what the expectation was if a customer came up. When something like that arises, in many organisations the organisation considers what other job it can give the person. Organisations may consider giving the individual a back-room job instead of addressing the issues that came up. In this case the company is really good. It sent its director of operations down to the shop to do a role-play scenario with the individual and to go through what to do if a customer comes up and a conversation takes place. It was just that social element that was a barrier for the individual. That was it, and the person has got on really well within the organisation since then.

There are organisations that put in place the correct processes in order that managers support employees and utilise their staff actually to impact company policy and they have an open mindset about the individual needs of people and are not afraid to ask the person what barriers exist. The biggest issue we find is organisations that want to do the right thing but that talk to everybody in the organisation around that individual and not ask the person involved what it is that he or she needs. That is a huge problem.