Ouch! – A BBC Website for and by Disabled People

Ouch! – It’s a Disability Thing

From the Ouch! About Page

Ouch! is a website from the BBC that reflects the lives and experiences of disabled people. It has articles, blogs, a very busy messageboard and an award-winning downloadable radio show – The Ouch Podcast). It’s aimed at those with a stakehold in disability: family, friends, professionals and, rather importantly, disabled people themselves – without whom all this would be a bit meaningless.

Some Other Features

The Play link has humorous drawings, comics, and articles.

The Motley Zoo comics features disabled animals such as animals that cannot go out to sea (owl and pussycat) because they are afraid of water.

A regular feature on accessible technology devices, such as the “Ouch! guide to audio description” and “TV help”.

A weekly Newsletter including disability news from the media and what’s new at Ouch!. Free subscription available.

 

 

Tech-interested visitors will enjoy Adrian Higginbotham’s regular feature on accessible technology devices, such as the “Ouch! guide to audio description” and “TV help”. Visitors can subscribe to the “Newsletter” to get a weekly brief on what’s new in disability news and what’s new on the site. The link to subscribe is on the bottom left side of the homepage. Visitors will want to check out the “Play” link, with its humorous drawings, comics and articles. The “Motley Zoo” comic depicts disabled animals, such as a shy peacock or the owl and the pussycat that can’t go out to sea because they have hydrophobia.

 

 

Disabled Still Get Cool Reception in U.S. Workplace

 

Even companies with diversity programs often neglect folks with disabilities, survey finds

From the Health Day news item

RIDAY, Oct. 8 (HealthDay News) — While many American companies say that hiring people with disabilities is important, few of them actually hire these job seekers or take steps to provide a welcoming work environment, a new survey finds.

The national poll of 411 senior executives and human resource managers found that 70 percent of respondents’ companies have diversity policies or programs in place, but only two-thirds of those with programs include disability as a component.

Only 18 percent of companies offer an education program designed to integrate people with disabilities into the workplace, and only 19 percent of companies have a specific person or department that oversees the hiring of people with disabilities, compared with 40 percent in 1995.

Among the other findings:

• Only 7 percent of companies with disability programs offer a disability affinity group (a group promoting disability awareness).
• Slightly more than half of respondents estimated what percentage of new hires in the past three years were people with disabilities, and on average the number they came up with was 2 percent.

The survey was released Tuesday by the Kessler Foundation and the National Organization on Disability (NOD). October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

Only 21 percent of people with disabilities ages 18 to 64 are working either full- or part-time, compared to 59 percent of people without disabilities, according to data released in July 2010 by the two groups. Those findings suggest little progress has been made since the Americans With Disabilities Act was implemented in 1990, the researchers said in a Kessler Foundation news release.

“America’s success in the global economy depends on how well we put to use the productive capacity of every person’s talent, skill and ability. This new survey reveals that most employers are not aware of the unique contribution that workers with disabilities can make and do little to recruit them,” Carol Glazer, NOD president, said in the release.

“The shockingly high unemployment rate among people with disabilities suggests that employers seeking dependable workers have a rich and ready talent pool of workers from which to draw,” she added.

Janice Flahiff (editor) note …….This posting does have an assortment of tags because not all are up on correct terminologies (including me in many areas)
Please excuse me if any term is offensive, it is not my intent.
However, I will omit any tags if I learn it is offensive.