Ms Mary Finn:

I thank the Senator for her questions. On her first question about schools, that is not an area I work. As a parent of children in school, I have ideas about it. I might answer that question through her second question, which was on how my organisation promotes cultures of inclusivity in businesses.

As I mentioned, the service is working with employers and employees. Perhaps I will demonstrate how the services happen and that fosters cultures of inclusion by way of example. The goal of the service is not to be focusing on the absence, but more to promote attendance, ability and retention. An example is that I have been supporting one particular person who is coming back to work after being away for more than two years. One of the main reasons for her absence was that she acquired a visual impairment. She works in an area that is very technical. There is an awful lot of very technical and long documents that she needs to read through. Therefore, we have put in place a text-to-speech reading software for her so that she now has the option to turn this feature on and have the text read to her. While all of this was going on and being put in place and the most suitable solution was being researched for her, training was being provided to her so she would be able to use the software. The training is equally as important as just providing the accommodation. Sometimes when reasonable accommodations, by way of access or technology, are put in place, people do not always get full training on how to use it, leaving them not knowing how to use it and with no supports.

In supporting the manager to assist his or her employee, I made the suggestion to make this available to the entire team. It will be a benefit to this particular individual and it will also benefit the entire time, because they then all have the option to have the text read to them, which would help them to get through their work perhaps a little bit quicker. It would certainly be easier for them if they have to read a very heavy and technically jargoned document at the end of a long day. Now the organisation is looking into making that technology available to everybody.

This is how my work supports organisations to foster cultures of inclusion. If that organisation is now going out and recruiting for that team, it can say that this is a feature and it would be easier for everybody to be able to do their work. They are now not just looking at the text-to-speech readers, they are also now looking at speech-to-text translators as well. It will work both ways.

Very often when one looks at a reasonable accommodation for a person, it actually works to the benefit of their wider team. I could keep everyone here today giving many more examples, but do not worry, I will not. I hope that answers the Senator’s question. My focus is on ability, attendance and retention and how that extends to the rest of the team and the entire organisation by making it inclusive and supportive of people.

At the end of the day, we are all people. We all want to be in work. Work is a huge part of our identity. If one can support an individual, that then creates opportunities for others who might be experiences challenges to say, "Mickey Joe over there was supported when he was coming back. I also have a challenge, so I will be supported in a similar compassionate and empathic manner as well. Therefore, I will not be afraid to ask for supports." That is part of the wider goal I have for my organisation, to support organisations to be much more open and disability confident in their conversations and to know how to ask questions. I hope that answers the Senator’s question. If she has any other questions, I would be happy to answer them.