EMPLOYERS must recognise there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ when it comes to accommodating the needs of the disabled, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner told this year’s Jersey Employment Trust conference.
Mr Gardner, disabled in an al-Qaeda attack that killed his cameraman Simon Cumbers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2004, was the keynote speaker at the event, which celebrated the charity’s 20th anniversary and recognised the efforts made by many Island employers to support those with special needs in the workplace.
Mr Gardner’s advice was based on his own transformation from a journalist who would often travel to some of the world’s danger hotspots to wheelchair-user, following the seven months he spent in hospital after the attack.
However, he returned to his role with the BBC and has since made two documentaries about his experiences.
In Jersey this week for the conference, sponsored by Ogier and NatWest International, Mr Gardner offered practical advice to help make the workplace – and public space in general – more accessible.
‘If you want to know that a walkway is OK for somebody who is blind, get somebody who is blind to validate it; if you want to make sure a place is wheelchair accessible, put somebody in a wheelchair or, better still, have a wheelchair user validate it.
‘Usually these things are drawn up by people who are just imagining it.’
