Presentations
Building employer confidence to recruit and retain employees with communication disability and low literacy
Scope’s Building Employer Confidence project is developing a suite of training and practical resources to enable mainstream organisations and businesses to develop the skills, knowledge, and confidence to recruit and retain employees with communication disability and low literacy. While there are many resources available to support employers to facilitate access and inclusion for people with physical and sensory disability, resources to support this cohort of employees and prospective employees specifically, are currently limited.
Approximately 1.2 million Australians (27.4%) live with communication disability. One in seven Australians will experience a communication disability at some stage on their life. Nearly 44% of Australian adults (7.3 million) have literacy levels at level 2 and below, which means reading skills at early secondary school level.
The initial stages of this project have identified that employers experience challenges in successfully recruiting and retaining employees with communication disability and low literacy, often because they are unsure of their access requirements and how to adapt and adjust processes and resources.
This project aims to increase employment opportunities for people with communication disability and low literacy by breaking down myths, changing employers’ perceptions and attitudinal barriers, and providing practical training and targeted resources to support employers and employees alike.