Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 12 May 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters

Employment and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Discussion

Mr. Deante Troy:

Do the people who work in businesses have the training to allow them to talk to people with disabilities? I went into one interview and the staff member looked at me and then asked what age I was. I felt uncomfortable. I think people in these positions should be doing the training we do for our course. Managers should have their teams doing training courses to enable them to learn from us. If we go for a job and we have anything wrong, then the staff in the company would be able to know that a person with a disability was coming in and there could be a means of support in place. If we were to feel nervous or that something was wrong, then we would have someone to lean on. I did one job for a day, and I felt so uncomfortable that I said I would not be back. I got so nervous and I felt the appropriate supports were not in place. I went back to my college and said that job was not for me. Therefore, there should be people in companies with a background to allow them to provide support for people to lean on.