“Not everyone with a disability experiences their condition in the same way. It therefore follows that reasonable accommodation cannot be the same for every individual with a disability.” So how does an employer “reasonably accommodate” a person with a disability in their workplace? This was just one of the key topics at this year’s fifth Annual Disability Conference, hosted by the Progression team (for the first time in Cape Town) on June 9, which explored the tools, technologies and systems for reasonably accommodating people with disabilities in the workplace. (We also explore this topic in our article on page 28 of this issue.)
The conference was well attended by human resources and employment equity managers, transformation specialists, health and wellness practitioners and CEOs from around South Africa. Tarryn Mason, general manager at Progression and host for the 2016 event, guided speakers through a variety of topics linked to reasonable accommodation in the workplace in an informal “Q&A” style format, providing a unique opportunity for the audience to build on ideas and actively contribute to the value of the discussions.