What do I need to do to get the documentation right?

Example

The Australian Road Trauma Agency conducts assessments of physical incapacity for Australians with serious road trauma-related injuries, including home visits to make recommendations about home modifications.

Home-based assessments are conducted by a two-person team: an occupational therapist to assess the level of incapacity, and an engineer to assess the requirements for any modifications to the dwelling.

The agency wishes to advertise positions for occupational therapists. In its advertisement it says that:

The Agency is seeking applications from people interested in helping us to help injured Australians reintegrate into the Australian community.

If you like to work with people in a caring way and have at least two year’s experience as an occupational therapist dealing with the rehabilitation of road trauma injuries, we’d like to hear from you.

Applicants for these positions must have a Bachelor of Applied Science (Occupational Therapy) or equivalent academic qualification, and possess a current driver’s licence.

The Australian Road Trauma Agency is proud of its diverse workforce, and welcomes applications from all qualified Australians.

What issues might this raise for applicants with disability?

Some issues that the Agency might want to think about in this advertisement, and that could raise questions of discrimination, are:

• Although the qualification shown is the correct qualification required to practice as an occupational therapist, is it really necessary for the assessment to be carried out by an occupational therapist or can it be carried out by people with other forms of medical qualification or experience? What qualifications are necessarily implied by the duties of the position, if any?
• Similarly, is it really necessary for the person to have two years experience dealing with the rehabilitation of road trauma injuries? It may be that people with other forms of experience, or experience with other forms of injuries, would be equally adept in the role.
• Because the person will conduct home visits, it would clearly be convenient if they had a driver’s licence, but it is not necessary that they do. Reasonable adjustments in this case might be that any necessary driving be done by their partner, or that they take taxis. The inherent requirement of the position is to conduct an assessment of the level of incapacity, not that the person be able to drive to the home.

The advertisement also provides an opportunity to signal that the agency is interested in receiving applications from people with disability. Section 45 of the DD Act allows such special measures to be taken to support equal opportunity in employment.

All applications received would, of course, need to be treated on their own merits, and a statement such as this within an advertisement does not imply that applications from people with disability would receive special treatment in any way once received. The Public Service Act requirement that employment decisions be made on the basis of merit would still apply.

Example

The position advertised in the Australian Road Trauma Agency included the following selection criterion:

1. Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the capacity to make presentations, and high-level negotiation skills.

What issues might this raise for applicants generally, especially applicants with disability, and for the selection panel that has to assess their applications?

Some elements of this criterion, particularly those dealing with negotiation and presentation skills, do not clearly relate to the duties of the position and may operate to discourage valuable applicants. They may disproportionately discourage people with disability who may, for example, not be confident about their presentation skills. This may raise issues of indirect discrimination.

Disability issues may also come directly into consideration when looking at the issue of communication skills. For example, a person with a speech impediment might be likely to be rated poorly against such a criterion because they lack confidence about making presentations, even though their oral communication skills would be satisfactory when dealing one-to-one with the person with a road trauma-related injury.

The requirement to write may disadvantage a range of people with disability—the issue raised by the position is more likely to be one of being able to record data, and the selection process should be flexible enough to recognise that information can be recorded in other formats.

Finally, are the selection panel and the delegate required to disregard all applicants whose communication skills may be perfectly adequate for the position, but not excellent?

In practice, the person in this position needs to be able to communicate effectively with clients whom they are assessing and with their co-workers. There may be some requirement to write technical reports and undertake other routine writing duties. The task for the selection panel is:

• to identify the people who have the communications skills that, with reasonable adjustment applied where necessary, can get the job done and
• then make a relative ranking.

Perhaps it would be simpler and clearer for everyone involved if the criterion was something like:

1. The successful applicant will be able to:
   1. communicate effectively with their co-workers, clients and other stakeholders, including preparing reports and other records of information.

Example

The Australian Road Trauma Agency provides support services to Australians from all backgrounds. We’re proud of the fact that our diverse workforce helps us to anticipate and meet the needs of the broad community. To maintain that standard of excellence, we want to make sure that this recruitment exercise attracts the best applicants and allows their claims to be treated fairly.

If you have any special needs during the selection process that may affect how you can present your claims, for example, because you have a disability, please contact [delegate/chair of the selection panel/diversity contact officer] to discuss your needs and how we can accommodate them effectively during the selection.

In this context, the disclosure by a person that they have a disability is often a difficult decision and should be treated with proper respect. As a matter of good practice, a person who does disclose should always be contacted by the delegate or the chair of the selection panel to discuss what arrangements, if any, they need to have made to allow them to present their claims fairly and compete for selection. This will allow the panel to prepare for any special access needs, but also to consider whether they need to make alterations to the methods they propose to use to assess each of the candidates.

In some cases, an agency may opt not to seek this information from applicants until they shortlist those applicants most likely to be successful. Where that occurs it is recommended that each of the shortlisted applicants be contacted by the delegate or chair of the selection panel to establish whether they need such arrangements and, if so, what they might be.

In either case, an applicant is more likely to disclose that they have a disability were they are confident that there is a purpose to making that disclosure. To make an informed decision, they will need to know what the selection process is likely to involve before they can make an assessment of whether they will require any particular arrangements to be made at all. Openness and transparency about the form of selection process that agencies intend to adopt, and what that will entail in practice (e.g. participating in face–to–face interviews, written tests, making presentations and so on), will clearly make this decision more straightforward for applicants.