Posted By Malcolm Hogarth I have been asked for guidance on the subject of employing people with specific difficulties and wonder if anyone out there can share their experiences. The first employee cannot read or write and the second employee has Retinis Pigmentosa. I do not have any great concerns about the employee who cannot read or write as there are ways of communicating verbally. We would consider carefully the tasks he would be undertaking and I would be closely involved with specific risk assessments for him. The second person is a bit more difficult and raises a number of concerns particularly as we are a factory environment. We obviously cannot be seen to discriminate and If anybody has experience of either of these issues I would love to hear from you. Thanks

Posted By Ken Taylor The nearest we have is an almost-blind non-hearing, non-speaking gardener in one of our schools (communication is mainly by writing very large on a large whiteboard). Risk assessment has had to address the person, the work environment and the tasks performed and a number of very specific controls have been introduced such as: padding various protrusions; tactile paving to the pond perimeter; fencing exposed glazing to the greenhouse; reporting and notification arrangements - particularly for fire procedures; ensuring others are aware of the situation (particularly the pupils); etc, etc. I believe that with very careful assessment, supervision and monitoring we can show that we have done what is reasonable to ensure the individual's safety, discharge our duties and enable a valued member of staff to continue in employment. Disabled persons tend to operate within their limitations and seem not to contribute disproportionately to the accident statistics.