New Website Aims to Find Jobs for People With Disability
15 September 2014 at 11:23 am
A woman who knows exactly what it feels like to be denied a job because of her disability is now working to help other people with disability enter the workforce.
Disability advocate Felicity Waters has created Ambitious Talent, a website that aims to bring employers and disabled jobseekers together.
Waters claims the website is the first in Australia designed to promote individuals with a disability by showcasing their full profile and resume, including their disability.
Employers seeking disabled workers can easily access their details and make contact regarding job opportunities.
The website is still only a concept at this stage, with Waters looking for funding through crowd-funding website Indiegogo.
She is currently attempting to sign up new members for a fee to help build and launch a fully functioning website.
Initial members are being offered various incentives for pledging one-off funding ranging from $15 to $2,500.
Offers for jobseekers include lifetime membership for $15.
The concept for Ambitious Talent came to Waters when she was rejected for a job due to disclosing her own disability – the symptoms of early onset Parkinson’s disease.
In response to the rejection she established her own business and actively sought to employ a disabled person.
However, she noticed that a person’s disability was rarely included in their resume or profile and finding disabled jobseekers was difficult.
She said she understands that many disabled people try to hide their disability because of the discrimination they receive but that Ambitious Talent would allow people to mention their disability in a job seeking environment without fear of negative repercussions.
“I know first-hand how hard it is to find work when you have a disability,” Waters said.
“For some it’s practically impossible. Ambitious Talent sets out to change that by creating a single website that puts disabled people and disability-friendly employers in the one place.”
"Many employers are actively looking for disabled workers. For example, many tech companies desire the exceptional skills of very bright people with autism.
“Different disabilities provide different strengths and challenges, while many have no specific impact on the person’s ability to do a job.
“A lot of people believe there aren’t enough businesses wanting to employ disabled people. I would argue that the problem is that it’s too hard for the business community to access disabled jobseekers.”
Employers and jobseekers can join Ambitious Talent by visiting the website: www.indiegogo.com/projects/ambitious-talent
