Complying with Reasonable Accommodation Requirements for Persons with Visual Impairment in Uganda Public Service Employment? Assumptions and Gaps

Uganda has got legal and policy frameworks that guarantee the provision of reasonable accommodation in employment for persons with disabilities, persons with visual impairment inclusive. The available literature indicates that persons with visual impairment remain largely disadvantaged in public service employment despite the progressive disability legal and policy framework in the employment. The paper examines the Uganda public service employment compliance with provisions of reasonable accommodation for persons with visual impairment. This paper arises from a study on access to and inclusion of persons with visual impairment in public service employment in Uganda. The study adopted a qualitative research approach. Twenty-two [22] participants were interviewed and included persons with visual impairment in public service and their direct supervisors from four districts of Jinja, Kampala, Iganga, and Mbarara, officials from Public Service Commissions, National Council for Disability, and Uganda National Association of the Blind. Data was obtained using interviews and observation and analyzed using thematic analysis. The results show the gaps and assumptions in the provision of reasonable accommodation requirements for persons with visual impairment in employment and have effects in the provision of auxiliary and support services, modification of working environment & facilities, making information accessible, modification of job application procedures, restructuring work systems, provision of housing, among others.

Disclosure of disability in the Australian Public Service: What the statistics tell us

What can large datasets tell us about the propensity of workers to disclose their disability? By comparing two large employee-based datasets from the same underlying population, this study aims to identify patterns of disability disclosure across age, gender, education, and public service classification levels. Data are obtained from the Australian Public Service Employment Database (150,000+ employees), a collection of information of every federal Australian public employee, and the APS State of the Service Employee Census (100,000+ respondents), an anonymous, non-compulsory survey of the same population. People with a disability who have not disclosed to their agency may be captured in the anonymous survey. The two datasets are compared regarding how many individuals have a disability at each variable (i.e. male/female, etc.). The data show that patterns of disclosure do differ across job classification levels and age, but not by gender or education levels.

Moral Character and Exemplification in Professional, Public, and Political Life

While qualities of good character are of great significance and value in human social and professional affairs—and conduct which at least conforms to such qualities is invariably required for public service employment—they cannot be a requirement of the private lives of citizens in free societies. That said, there seems more of a case for the personal possession of such qualities in the case of those human professions and services for which moral exemplification to others may be considered an inherent part of the professional role. After some consideration of arguments for and against such moral character exemplification in relation to such professional roles as religious ministry and teaching, this paper proceeds to make some case for politics as professional role of this exemplificatory kind.