Disabled Workers' Co-operative

You may well have come across the Disabled Workers' Co-operative during the last couple of years: project manager, Neil Wood-Gaiger, has been tireless in raising awareness of their work as widely as possible.

The charity was set up with lottery funding as a forum for disabled people to advertise their skills and for employers to find qualified and motivated applicants for their vacancies.

There has been considerable debate recently - both here and elsewhere - about the rights and wrongs of positive discrimination. There is absolutely no doubt though, that many disabled people find it extremely difficult to get a job, and a service such as the Disabled Workers' Co-operative, which provides an opportunity for workers and employers to make contact, must be a useful addition to the employment market.

I have just heard from Neil that the project is in a financial crisis. Since their funding contract ended at the beginning of the year, they have kept going on their small reserves and the goodwill of the people involved - a situation that couldn't last for very long. Although they hope to obtain some European funding next year, this is not certain, and in any case they are facing financial difficulties right now.

If you feel able to help with a financial contribution, I know that it will be much appreciated and well spent. It seems a real shame that all the hard work and hopes of the last few years should go to waste.

This is a link to their website www.disabledworkers.org.uk where you can read more about their work and how to help.

If you currently have a job available, advertising it here is a great way of demonstrating your commitment to equality of opportunities. If you are disabled and would like to be more fully occupied, you can list your skills in an arena where potential clients or employers can readily find you. There are opportunities for voluntary work too, if earning is not a prerequisite.

What do you think about positive discrimination?

"Make disability news" goes the headline in the sits. vac. entry for an editor for Disability Now, billed as the UK’s leading disability monthly.

It sounds a great job for anyone with a passionate interest in people, society, the news and issues that shape the lives of disabled people, carers, campaigners...

But read the small print, and you realise that it isn't a job for anyone who fits the criteria - no matter how well qualified you may be, there's no point applying unless you are also disabled.

"Time to get equal" says Scope - but when did positive discrimination ever improve the situation for any minority? You've only to look at the media coverage of female Labour MPs who were elected on the basis of their gender in Labour's '97 election landslide to see that nobody benefits from such attempts at social engineering, however well-intentioned. Those who are arbitrarily excluded feel rightly resentful; those given preference must surely ask themselves whether they would have achieved their position on their own merits. And they must continually sell themselves to sceptical colleagues - a tiring distraction from the task in hand.

So what is Disability Now thinking of? It cannot surely be that only disabled people have an insight into issues of disability and equality. What about the parent who has negotiated the maze of social services, education and healthcare on behalf of their disabled child? Or anyone who has cared for a family member with a long-term illness or disability? Are their experiences less appropriate? How about people with professional or commercial experience? Therapists, teachers, specifiers... still not relevant?

Perhaps this is why the DN post has remained unfilled for so long: the people with the necessary skills and talents would really prefer to be selected on ability, not disability.