Interview: Former UKZN Student

The following questionnaire was directed towards an ex UKZN student whom graduated with her Bachelor of Social Science in Sociology and Social Development who is physical disabled and chooses to remain anonymous:

What are your difficulties / disabilities?

I am paralyzed from the waist down which results in me not being able to walk therefore I utilize a wheelchair to move around. My current state is due to an accident that occurred 8 years ago.

Do you consider yourself employable?

Yes, I am currently employed as a personal assistant (PA).Although I am positive about my stance I do acknowledge that as a disabled person there are modifications that need to be ensured in my workplace that will enable me to work efficiently.

Generally however, having a disability has never conditioned my mentality towards not being employable. Like me, numerous of my disabled peers at UKZN had career aspirations and thus were evidently pursuing it by educating themselves.



Have you lost a job due to your disability?

Yes, I have. I was employed as a cashier at a supermarket in my first year for a week. Thereafter I was told to leave due to the older staff member whom I replaced, was back from maternity leave. I was also told that since I was a temp worker preference was given to her and I knew at some point I had to leave but I didn’t expect it so soon. On enquirer however from other colleagues at work I leant that no such thing occurred and that my disability frightened my manager as too many modifications had to be made to accommodate me and too many regulations to adhere too.

Have you been discriminated against in your job because of your disability and what type?
Yes, I have endured the following:
From other employees whom don’t include me in any social activities such as lunches, social discussions etc. Furthermore comments and remarks made about my disability directly to me and through the grapevine.

Not assigned certain tasks because of my disability in the light of superiors believing I don’t have the capacity too such as attending seminars , meetings etc.
In one company I had a co – worker that was employed in the same position as me. We were employed at the same and she constantly monitored and dictated to me. When I approached management about this they did nothing to rectify the situation and it continued until I resigned.

Also when employed at this firm, I learnt that the same work colleague received a much higher salary then me. Although we were assigned the same duties .The above occurrences was also felt by numerous disabled colleagues at there workplaces.

Another of my disabled colleague had a problem in using the restroom at her place of work. In that the locks were too high for her to reach to lock and was too small to maneuver her wheelchair in. The company that she worked for was a reputable institution that even instilled its own disability policies. However after numerous attempts of approaching management about the situation it is still to be rectified. She often has to get female colleagues to aid her.

What challenges do you face as a disabled individual in getting a job?

· Not trying to sound pessimistic but we do face many inequalities. It stems from our schooling system in that many disabled schools do not offer the subjects which enable us to enroll for degrees in sciences and engineering. Many of us, like myself enroll for Social Science degrees. Translating this to the working world, there is an evident problem in that jobs are sometime limited in these fields. So to have an advantage over your abled competitor, chances are you have to have an exceptional academic record.

This isn’t possible all the time as having a disability stiffels many disabled students from performing exceptionally at campus and many students come from disadvantaged background were some concept of basic schooling isn’t that sufficient.

· Disabled employees are often employed by “token workers” so as to conform to the regulations of the S.A employment Act. These workers are then subordinated and discriminated against in the workplace.

· Wage inequalities amongst these workers

· Design of the working environment for disabled employees.

· No establishment or development of organizations or specific trade unions to help facilitate disabled workers in the workplace - be it finding a job or in a job already.

What situations would you like to be protected against in your workplace?

Evidently, it would equate to the difficulties associated with getting a job. So issues that we need protection from include:

· wage inequalities
· discrimination
· actual protection from organizations
· schooling curriculum
· design of the workplace
· tokenism