WATSON LAKE │ THE POSSIBILITY OF A UNIVERSALLY ACCESSIBLE COMMUNITY

Watson Lake has the services, businesses, and political and organizational structures to enable significant change in support of people with disabilities in the workplace.

KEY CONCEPTS: universal design; readiness-to-work; public and private partnerships; project planning

Watson Lake employers identified specific gaps in the readiness-to-work of prospective employees – namely, the lack of education, skills and motivation that are essential to succeed in the labour force.

This so-called gap in readiness-to-work is, in part, a result of disabilities issues: learning disabilities, mental health, and issues arising as a consequence of FASD.

One provider suggested that area educators of school-aged children and youth are reporting that 60% of students in school have a learning disability of some kind or another. This estimate might seem high at first, but when considered within the context of a reported 50%+ occurrence of FASD in rural Yukon communities, a 60% learning disabilities rate seems highly likely.

The high rate of learning disabilities is itself only a problem for employers and employment when it prevents individuals from being able to achieve career and life goals. Aside from the absolute necessity to reduce the risk factors for learning disabilities, notably alcohol and drug use during pregnancy and alcohol and drug abuse at points throughout life, there is an immediate need to coordinate efforts to ensure people with disabilities are able to access the education and training needed in order improve readiness-to-work and associated career and life choices.

The agencies and service providers in the Watson Lake suggested ways of addressing this problem, breaking the cycle through improved access to learning and supports.

Here is what some of them had to say.

• The first step in bringing about full and open access for people with disabilities across the wider Watson Lake community, including employment, is for the public sector to model best practice in terms of the necessity and benefits of universal design in progressive modern towns and cities. Some of the exiting public services infrastructure has limited access – including essential public services offices. In order for employers to take an initiative supporting disability employment seriously, the public (government) services must be seen to embrace the principles and apply them to positive effect. This appears to be a key initial step – or at the least, coordinated to roll out in-step with a prospective implementation of a Yukon Disability Employment Strategy in Watson Lake.
• Employers are willing to accept employees with disabilities, but only on the condition that they are able to complete the work as per job specifications. In other words, employers need supports in understanding the services and accommodations that are available in order to adapt a job and the workplace, enabling them to accommodate disabilities with risk of excessive cost to the business. Employers are pragmatic, to be sure. However, there is an opportunity to extend the scope of what is considered good business practice to include proactive responses to disability employment issues – reducing potential human resources problems and concerns in the workplace when employees experience difficulties associated with a disability of one kind or another over the course of their working life.
• The town of Watson Lake would benefit from a community-wide accessibility audit – encompassing the whole of the public and private sector, including services and agencies, businesses, and public infrastructure and conveniences. Undertaking both an annual audit, in addition to ensuring that all town and business project planning applications included an analysis of universal design principles in project and event planning would contribute to developing a culture of inclusiveness and progressive thinking regarding disabilities and the benefits of a fully accessible and equitable community development.
• Education has a significant role to play in supporting labour market development in Watson Lake. Existing services include a full service education system, from primary through tertiary education, and additional services through training providers such as Watson Lake Community Outreach. Providers recognize that a significant barrier to employment equity and workplace accessibility can be overcome by further education and skills development. Job seekers struggle to successfully complete education requirements and applications for employment given the complexity of the training and associated employment bureaucracy. Many job seekers with disabilities have low literacy and numeracy skills making it difficult to retain their employment if the job requires significant amounts of in-service training and independent coursework. Supports for people with learning disabilities and other barriers to learning require a support network of education and training providers to ensure they have the needed support to sustain their education and training requirements and remain in employment.

Service providers in Watson Lake represent an energetic and talented pool of community-minded people, ready and willing to work with the business community and political leaders to affect positive change. A Yukon Disability Employment Strategy needs to become a conduit for supporting networking and communication within communities – enabling grass-roots initiatives to take hold and drive progressive change.

The ideas, interest, and energy needed to increase the representation of people with disabilities in the workplace are already in place in Watson Lake. All that is needed is the means to coordinate positive change. The Yukon Disability Employment Strategy looks forward to returning to Watson Lake in the not too distant future to work towards achieving this goal.

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