The disabled students helping change work attitudes

Disabled students at a Hampshire college have shared their ideas for improving employment opportunities with a government minister.

Social security and disability minister Sir Stephen Timms visited Treloar College near Alton to mark International Wheelchair Day.

Staff and students explained how they are working to remove barriers to employment through an initiative called "Let Me In", which assesses how accessible businesses are and suggests improvements.

Monica, 17, said people's perspectives need to change, adding: "They assume you don't have the level of capacity that you do, just because you are in a wheelchair."

Hope, 19, is doing a year-long internship at Treloar College with Southampton Airport.

As well as learning about customer care and health and safety, she said she has helped to spot accessibility problems, such as information point telephones being positioned too high for people using wheelchairs to reach.

"I said we need to change this," said Hope. "Going to the airport has been life changing, my independence and communication has got better."

Gemma Forman, a duty manager at the airport, said Hope had taught them things still need to change.

"We are committed to inclusion... accessibility is core to what we do," she said.

Visiting Treloar College, Sir Stephen described the "Let Me In" scheme as "impressive" and said it was making an "important" contribution to closing the disability employment gap.

"It's a 30% employment gap and it has been as big as that, pretty much, since 2010. We want to reduce that gap."

About 80% of non-disabled working age people are in employment compared to 48% of disabled people, according to government figures.

Sir Stephen said it was "really important" every disabled young person reached their potential.

"We are investing £3.5bn between now and 2030 in employment support...our Keep Britain Working Review is focusing on what more employers can do to open up their opportunities to disabled people," he said.

Treloar student Xavi is deaf and has cerebral palsy and asthma. He said he wanted employers to be more aware of the conditions disabled people have and to show understanding.

"People don't know what you have and how they can make changes so you can access the workplace," he said.

Fellow student Ben, 21, said: "Just, maybe, make it better for people using wheelchairs."

Ben Bastin, head of Treloar College, said government support needs to be "better connected up" so employers know what they should be providing and disabled young people "feel confident they are going to get that support".

He said there will always be young people for whom work is not a viable option because of health and learning needs but the college wants each student to reach their potential.

"We definitely think work could be a much bigger part of lots of young people's futures," said Bastin.

"We want to see their confidence grow so they can go out and change the world."

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