DIAP TRANSCRIPT (v2-12)

Jane Spring (Executive Direction, Industry Development and Business Services)I started in the NSW public service in the year 2000. I’d just finished six years working at the organising committee for the Olympic Games and I joined the Department of Sport then.

Back in 1990, I’d just won a national title in the lightweight double scull, and was hoping to represent Australia in the world championships. I went to a regatta in Taree, and the guy driving went to sleep at the wheel. I actually had pretty catastrophic injuries and was really lucky to survive.

It was a very major change in my life at the age of 26, at a time when, at that stage, a career as a solicitor was what I was planning, and it was really, gosh, it was 4 or 5 years before I even worked full time.

Ian Florek (Telephone Systems Officer)I started off as just a switchboard operator, in the early days, and I still deal with the public, and in between doing that I look after about six sites, building sites, that have the same sort of telephone system as we have here.

I was born blind and the reason for my blindness was being a Rubella baby. I was born just after the War in 1946. I had 16 operations all told on my eyes.

Simon Smith (Secretary, NSW Department of Industry)Today I’m really proud to be launching the Department’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan on the International Day of People with Disability. Our Exec Committee is fully committed to doing this, because we’re all agreed, we want to be an employer which is inclusive, for every Australian who’s got disability.

Jane Spring (Executive Direction, Industry Development and Business Services)Many people find it inspiring that you are in the workplace, because they think ‘wow’ that… they intuitively know, that’s kind of difficult.

Ian Florek (Telephone Systems Officer)It was a new thing, having a dog in the office. It didn’t worry me as much, but I think after really getting to know a lot of people, they were more worried, having been told they’re going to have a blind person working with them - that uh…what are we going to say or whatever, but once they’ve got to know me, they could tell that I was no different from anybody else.

Simon Smith (Secretary, NSW Department of Industry)My brother was involved in a terrible road trauma accident and I saw the way his employer stepped up to the plate to help him make a recovery against the odds. I resolved that wherever I worked to be a place that was fully inclusive and that gave the one in five people in NSW that have disability the chance to participate as fully as possible.

Jane Spring (Executive Direction, Industry Development and Business Services)It can be incredibly hurtful to find that you can’t participate like everybody else, and because you can’t even get into a room or you don’t have a decent sight line or you can’t communicate properly, and it’s really important to be inclusive, and to be thinking those things through.

Simon Smith (Secretary, NSW Department of Industry)There’s some concrete action for, for managers and staff in the Department. We’ve adopted a plan that means every new fit out we do, is going to meet the Australian standard for accessibility.

We’re also going to ask facilities people and managers to review our existing tenancies, to see what can be done and what must be done to improve accessibility there.

Ian Florek (Telephone Systems Officer)In my sort of job, you don’t have to move around a great deal, you know - just to go the men’s room, or go into the kitchen for instance - luckily the kitchen’s just around the corner here - because I don’t have to go a long distance holding a hot cup of coffee or tea in my hands.

Simon Smith (Secretary, NSW Department of Industry)We’re going to review our, some of our recruitment processes, because I think we don’t make it easy enough for people with disability to apply for jobs they could do well.

Jane Spring (Executive Direction, Industry Development and Business Services)I really look for organisations that are welcoming of people with disabilities, are prepared to change things to make things work.

Simon Smith (Secretary, NSW Department of Industry)In our public work, we should also think about disability access when we provide funding through grants or deliver services, so you might have seen recently that the Minister’s sponsored $200,000 to make some of our top fishing spots accessible to people in a wheelchair.

Ian Florek (Telephone Systems Officer)Once you leave your comfort zone where you know - your home or whatever - then you do have to rely on people.

Jane Spring (Executive Direction, Industry Development and Business Services)I appreciate that a lot of places aren’t accessible to people with disabilities, but what I do appreciate is the attitude to changing things, to fixing them, to responding to feedback.

Simon Smith (Secretary, NSW Department of Industry)Since the beginning of last year, we’ve created 60 new jobs for people with disability through our procurement processes. All of our business cards and corporate printing is done in the

Illawarra, by a not-for-profit company that employs people with disability. There’s about five of our regional facilities where the grounds are maintained by people from a not-for-profit, with disability. We’ve got people from the spinal injury area who are doing data entry work for us.

Jane Spring (Executive Direction, Industry Development and Business Services)When you’re disabled, self-esteem is a really important part of your make up and your resilience, and work is a huge part of that.

Simon Smith (Secretary, NSW Department of Industry)Today’s the International Day of Disability, and that gives us the chance to reflect on what we’ve got to do in 2015.

Ian Florek (Telephone Systems Officer)I never dreamt that I would have been able to have achieved what I’ve achieved, no way.

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