Documentary detailing the employment of people with disabilities.
Genre:
Documentary; Health and Medicine
Documentary. Features seven disabled people working in various industries, and details their disability, their working role, any specific training they undertook and also provides an insight into how they spend their free time. Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Luton North, the film aims to prompt organisations into considering the employment of similar individuals.
The film begins with Anne, who has spina bifida and requires a wheelchair, and works at a local garment manufacturer as a pieceworker, clerk and relief telephonist. The commentary points out that she is 'paid the same because, after all, she does the same work'. In her spare time Anne sings with a local group and is shown undertaking her latest hobby, pistol shooting.
Mary is a fully blind woman who excels on the piano and works as a telephonist at a local government department, where she uses specially adapted switchboard equipment, as well as a braille telephone directory and braille note-taker. Meanwhile John, who works as a machinist in an engineering workshop, has very limited vision. Also featured is Brian, a hemiplegic who works at a sheet metal precision works and Tom, who has no vision in his right eye and works at Whitbread's repairing wooden crates. Pamela, who has cerebral palsy, is a garment worker, whilst her boyfriend Colin works in a printing company.
The film concludes by reinforcing the notion that disabled people can be just as valuable as able-bodied workers as long as their roles are suitable and make best use of their skills, and suggests ways in which organisations can find out more about employing the registered disabled.
Featured Organisations:
Rotary Club of Luton North; Ashley Kay (Hatters); Balmforth Engineering; Cam Gears; Ellis & Goldstein; Gainsborough Press; Whitbread (London)