If some people had their way, people like my daughter, Philippa, wouldn’t be full citizens. Why? They have Down Syndrome: trisomy 21 to be exact.
This somehow labels them as less deserving of a full life to 71 per cent of employers in Malta – if it is correct to judge by the fact that for over 45 years, that majority of employers have disregarded the requirements of The Persons with Disability (Employment) Act of 1969.
What a loss for those employers! They have no idea of the positivity that comes to a workplace from a person with special needs.
It is a shame that so many employers still have such a fear of the unknown that normal people with Down’s might bring to the workplace. As a result, only five per cent of persons labelled as ‘with disability’ have thus far been gainfully occupied in Malta, as compared with the much higher Central European levels, which vary between 40 and 50 per cent.
The challenge over the coming years will be to change the perception that citizens like my Philippa should remain ‘Down’ at the play stage of life and very exceptionally move up into the dignified world of economic productivity, albeit at whatever lower level they may achieve upon their own merits.
When parents like myself look at our special young adults, we cannot see anything different about them at all. They are normal from head to toe… yes, slower… but also less arrogant, less conniving, less protesting and a lot less dour than their ‘more normal’, still-maturing counterparts.
If one needed to trace the source of the right to work of all Maltese citizens irrespective of physical, sensorial or intellectual ability, one could first quote the Declaration of Principles in the Constitution, which states unequivocally that the State “recognises the right of all citizens to work and shall promote such conditions as will make this right effective”.
Furthermore, the Education Act 1988 specifies, equally straightforwardly, that: “It shall be the duty of the State... to provide those (for which I read ‘ALL’) citizens with the opportunity to qualify in trade, skills, artisan or technical or commercial activities... in order to prepare, instruct and instil discipline in those citizens for work in the community.”
It is a shame that so many employers still have such a fear of the unknown that normal people with Down’s might bring to the workplace
The 2005 Report of the Working Group on Inclusive and Special Education in Malta (known colloquially as the Spiteri Report) said that the gap between the right to work and actually finding work did not seem to be diminishing.
That the position has not improved 10 years later is evidence that the disabled “are not every employer’s baby”! To quote the lamented Lino Spiteri: “Employers need to be reminded that whatever different colour of our personal makeup, all of us together constitute the rainbow of humanity.”
Now that I am well into ‘maturity’, I am so excited to have a young adult with Down’s, and I make sure everyone knows it. I told my much younger university colleagues when I was a student for a brief period after reaching official retirement age; I now tell my colleagues at my place of resumed work in the national employment service, and I tell my clients, who are in the main employers.
It doesn’t matter whether they want to hear it or not, I tell them anyway! Everything that I hear people say about persons with disability sounds negative to me: I can provide at least three positives for all of the challenges that one can attribute to Down Syndrome.
To me as a long-time parent, Philippa is empowering. I feel like a rainbow on steroids when in her company!
And at last, I can be officially positive: this country has a National Employment Policy, which the government published in May 2014, that promises:
• New fiscal incentives to attract employers to provide open-market jobs for persons with disability;
• Preferential treatment through public procurement regulations aimed at positively discriminating in favour of social enterprises or cooperatives employing vulnerable persons;
• Employment supported by job coaches;
• Various sheltered workshops.
So, allow me to tell you if you are blessed to have been given a young adult with UP Syndrome or you know someone who is: SMILE in the knowledge that the move towards a more inclusive and a fairer Maltese society is irreversible.
The government decided, in its Budget 2015, to encourage employers to create greater employment opportunities for vulnerable groups in Malta and Gozo.