World Day of Safety and Health at Work | Illustrating Disability

Apr 24

On a navy blue background, the blog title “Illustrating Safety and Health at Work” is in the center. On the bottom left corner, inside a blue blob says “disability experience.” To view the visual Instagram post based on this blog post, click the image or here.

World Day for Safety and Health at Work is on April 28th to internationally recognize the need for a healthy and safe working environment and prevent harm in the workplace. The risk to a healthy and safe working environment can be emerging technologies to working conditions, to the change in employment options within the workforce. In the area of safety and health at work, the impact is commonly discussed as physical but there is growing awareness on the psychological aspects of health relating to work.

Physical

When considering risks in the workplace, it is common to discuss the physical harm and risk when discussing safety and health at work. Workplace accidents due to lack of awareness, understanding, or even the existence of safety protocols is a discussion that everyone should have with their employers. Knowing how to mitigate risks to prevent injury and death is critical to a safe work environment.

Psychological

As mental health is slowly being part of the conversation in the workplace, being psychologically safe for employees is critical to their well-being. It impacts both of the employees and helps employers retain talent for a longer period of time. Including the psychological component of well-being to safety and health at work is important to consider the whole picture of health.

Understanding safety and health at work includes having clarity of the connection of disability in this topic. The whole purpose of considering safety and health at work is to prevent injury and disability. It is creating an environment that considers the risks and gaps and creates standards, processes, procedures, and policies to ensure that no employee is harmed while working. This concept includes approaches to lessen the harm and consider accommodations if an employee has a disability, whether it is a disability that already existed or a disability due to injury at work. We cannot have a conversation on safety and health at work without considering persons with disabilities in the workplace.

The biggest reason why safety and health at work is an issue that needs to be discussed is due to the goal of preventing harm. To the majority of the public, it is preventing disability and death due to unsafe practices. Being able to work without sacrificing a good quality of life is a standard we all should strive for and maintain. Especially if our ability to live in the community is based on the income we received. There have been many cases where a workplace accident has a long-term disability that changes the person’s life. While it has allowed us to update laws, policies, and standards to prevent the same harm in the future, it has greatly impacted someone’s life and ability to participate in all aspects of the community, including work.

This leads to the next issue that is not always commonly discussed. Workplace accommodations is an approach to improve safety and health at work. While the discussion of safety and health at work is typically viewed as preventing disability and death, there is another aspect that is including persons with disabilities in the workforce safely and with dignity. Workplace accommodations include many safety considerations from built environment to emergency access to ensure that persons with disabilities are included in the workplace.

With workplace accommodations, there is a concept called “undue hardship” that is meant to help employers not lose their business if the process to include the person with a disability will cause financial burden to implement the accessibility adjustments required. However, due to stigma and attitudes towards persons with disabilities, the feeling of burden can be strong with the lack of awareness and knowledge of what it takes to be accessible to the community. It is to the point that the discrimination starts at hiring practices and concerns of safety and health of both the person with a disability and other employees are taken into consideration without the goal of changing the environment.

Creating a safe and accessible environment for persons with disabilities can help everyone. Majority of the safety and health policies, procedures, and standards stem from the need to create an inclusive environment for persons with disabilities. It is critical to consider the importance of persons with disabilities efforts and advocacy from both wanting to be involved in the workforce and gaining a disability due to unsafe practices. Considering risks and solutions at work for all employees is important to safety and health at work and it is amplified from the increased implementation of not only safety protocols, procedures, and standards, but workplace accommodations too.

If the disability does not prevent a person from returning to the workforce, return to work policies are critical to the success and transition of the employee. These policies can look a lot like disability accommodations with the inclusion of supports and services while unable to work for an extended period of time. Some places do not have strong policies about leave due to disability or mental health and the support and procedures to return to work. This requires collaboration of policies, procedures, and standards from governments and employers to create a work environment that is safe and mindful of the well-being of people.

Unfortunately, part of the reason why we seriously need to consider and implement policies and standards that promote a safe and healthy environment at work is because people have gained a long-term disability and died due to working conditions. Whether it is a physical injury or psychological harm due to the work environment, it is unacceptable to maintain those environments and not implement change. While change is needed to ensure that work environments improve and follow safety standards, workplace accommodations, and encourage key policies such as return to work, it is just as important for the government to have policies and support in place when disability does happen. From income supports to services and supports that maintain dignity and rights of persons with disabilities, there are many areas that the government can improve on outside of just the workplace that has an impact.

So, what needs to be done? There are many stakeholders that have a role in having safety and health at work.

There are approaches in policies such as benefits and long-term disability that require both governments and employers to invest in. It is important to remember that we need both physical and psychological safety when considering safety and health at work.

There is awareness needed of different accommodations options for both employees and employers. Whether it is the range of options that can be possible for accommodations or removing the stigma that is associated with accommodations like costs and time is significant for safety and health at work. Both employees and employers need to be aware.

Considering how close disability rights and justice are to safety and health at work. The advocacy of the public and persons with disabilities to create a more inclusive and accessible environment that benefits everyone. Persons with disabilities need to be aware of their rights and we all need to promote inclusion of persons with disabilities in the workplace to create better working conditions and behaviours surrounding safety, health, and productivity of work.