THE LOT OF THE DISABLED
By DAME GEORGIANA BULLER
SINCE the Committee on the Training and Resettlement of the Disabled, presided over by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour, reported a few weeks ago, there has been time to give to its proposals the consideration they demand. The report contains much that is of value, and in its general approach to the subject deserves high commendation. The emphasis it lays on placing the disabled, not in any employment which may offer, but in the most skilled of which they are capable, is particu- larly to be applauded. But when the recommendations come to be considered, grave misgivings must arise in the minds of all who have had practical experience of the problems involved.
The main recommendations are three in number: (a) The introduction of a Quota of Disabled Persons, and the imposition upon employers who do not satisfy the quota of a restriction on the engagement of workers.
(b) The scheduling of certain occupations for the benefit of dis- abled persons.
(c) The creation of a Register of Persons Handicapped by Dis- ablement.
With regard to the first recommendation, the successful absorp- tion of a disabled person into industry depends primarily on the recognition by himself, by his employer, and by his fellow-workers of the fact that his employment is dependent on his merits as a worker, and not on any artificial condition attaching to his dis- ability. The introduction of a compulsory element into the em- ployment of disabled people would destroy this concept, and estab- lish in the minds of all concerned the idea that disabled labour is of an inferior kind, which an employer can only be expected to accept under compulsion. The great majority of the physically disabled can be fitted to compete on equal terms with the able- bodied in suitable employment ; for the particular purpose of this employment they are therefore, in effect, not disabled at all. There is some evidence, moreover, that the physically handicapped are slightly more stable and less accident-prone than the able-bodied. These things are already appreciated by a small, but steadily increasing, number of employers. Discrimination against the en- gagement of the physically disabled is usually based on misappre- hension, ignorance or prejudice. These hesitations should be over- come, not by compulsion, but by informed propaganda and organised publicity for the results of experience.
Nor is the proposal for Scheduled Occupations as it stands a happy one. The long-cherished theory that employment as messengers, lift- attendants, &c., is the most appropriate, if not the only, kind for the disabled is an exploded one. Take lift-attendants. For any man whose physical disability would not prevent him from follow- ing this ill-paid and soul-destroying occupation there are a number of other more suitable alternatives at the present time, and they could be greatly increased by an adequate study of industrial re- quirements, combined with appropriate training-facilities. It is true that the Report visualises the adoption of a scheduled occupation only in default of another which offers greater scope ; but once these more limited forms of employment are reserved for the dis- abled, the idea that they are in fact the most suitable, and that disabled people should be encouraged to adopt them, will inevitably take shape in the public mind.
Whatever the cause of the disability, practically all disabled people possess two characteristics—an intense dislike to being classified as such and the capacity to forget that they are disabled once they have found the means to achieve normal activity. It follows that if registration were to be made compulsory, the effect would be fficially to place numbers of people in a category from which they ave been at special pains to escape, and which they have ceased o regard as applicable to themselves. If registration is voluntary, he great majority of self-respecting disabled will refuse to register. hose who do will be, in the main, the weaklings and the less nterprising. Consequently, the stigma which has, in the past, ended to be associated, quite unjustifiably, with the word " cripple," ill be still more definitely attached to the registered disabled.
The creation of a non-competitive industry under a Central Government Department for the benefit of those who require em- ployment under sheltered conditions is a further recommendation.
There are important considerations that arise here. The disabled who may require the benefit of so-called " sheltered " employment fall into two distinct categories which should not be confused.
There are, firstly, those who can only work part-time or at irregular intervals ; such people may need to be employed under non-com- petitive conditions. And, secondly, those who require certain special facilities, such as work on ground-floor level, an atlapted seat, bench or tool, &c., but who, given this assistance, are perfectly capable of working normal hours, including overtime when necessary, and of producing a normal output. These people should not be assigned to the stagnation of non-competitive employment. On the contrary, they particularly benefit from, and can respond to, the incentive of knowing themselves a part of a competitive industry where their own efforts and the prosperity of the undertaking are of mutual benefit. Experience proves not only that such an industry can hold its own on an economic basis, but that disabled people thus em- ployed will in some cases recover by this means sufficient self- confidence and mobility to pass on from it into normal employment elsewhere. Although the types of disabled whose needs must be met by " sheltered " employment are relatively few, their re- quirements cover a wide range. To meet them successfully, elasticity and variety are prime essentials, and it is extremely doubtful whether a centralised administration would be the most suitable. The proposals in the report regarding a Central Government Department are, however, too vaguely indicated to admit of con- structive comment.
Any successful scheme for the resettlement of the disabled must have for its objective the return of the individual to normality or as near an approach to it as he can be enabled to achieve. But the absorption of the physically disabled into industry is, in fact, a highly specialised process. It can only he successfully accom- plished if based on a knowledge of the physiological and anatomical requirements of industry and on first-hand experience of the poten- tialities and limitations attaching to the placing of disabled workers. Such knowledge, whether on the medical or on the lay side, is at present possessed by very few people indeed, while there is ample evidence of the unfortunate consequences which have resulted from a lack of it. On the local committees which the report con- templates a great responsibility will rest. It is of the first importance that they should make the fullest use of such specialised experience as is available, and that steps be taken to increase the supply of this by providing for a more extensive study of the subject. Mean- while, there is sufficient data already accumulated in this country and in the United States to provide valuable guidance if collated and made available in accessible form.
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