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Down syndrome and employment: ‘It shouldn’t be amazing anymore, it should just be the norm’

Hospitality and retail remain key areas of employment for people with condition but the base is broadening, says charity

Aoife Gaffney, head of employment at Down Syndrome Ireland, says people’s perceptions are beginning to change.

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Emmet Malone
Wed Mar 20 2024 - 05:01

There have been huge improvements in recent years for people with Down syndrome, but not so much that parents don’t still tell Aoife Gaffney it is “amazing” when their adult sons and daughters secure meaningful employment they enjoy.

“It shouldn’t be amazing anymore, it should just be the norm,” she says.

Gaffney is head of employment at Down Syndrome Ireland and ahead of World Down Syndrome Day this Thursday – when the theme will be putting an end to stereotypes – she suggests people’s perceptions are beginning to change.

Hospitality and retail remain key areas of employment, she says, for some of the approximately 7,000 people in Ireland with Down syndrome, but the base is broadening as the organisation partners with firms in a wide range of sectors.

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And people, in turn, begin to see and appreciate what is actually possible.

Precise numbers are hard to pin down, says Gaffney, but, in 2018, research the organisation conducted suggested about 6 per cent of adults with Down syndrome were in meaningful employment. She estimates the figure might be twice that now, with every individual starting a new job still something of a success story.

“The biggest thing, I think, is just awareness. People with Down syndrome don’t generally have a physical disability, so there’s not many adaptations that you’ve got to make to the workplace. So we train up the employer and their staff team to be aware, to be confident and in control as they welcome their new colleague into the workplace.”

[ ‘I’m going to be with the HR gang, working with the loveliest boss ever’ ]

Gaffney points to members who are working in hairdressing and as barbers, and mentions pharmaceutical manufacturing as a sector in which several very big employers have recently taken on staff. It is not just that the number of jobs available continues to grow at a slow but steady pace, it is that there are more roles that offer the opportunity to fulfil potential and to demonstrate to others what that potential is.

“The world is changing and the young people themselves don’t want to go to a day service, whether it’s good, bad or indifferent . . . they want to be part of the mainstream world,” says Prof Michael Shevlin at the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities, a part of the university’s department of education.

Prof Michael Shevlin: 'What we’re trying to do is create almost a movement of change within businesses and support them to make a real shift in the way that they look at who they employ.'

The centre, which works with people with intellectual disabilities and has had a substantial impact on the employment landscape since its establishment in 2016, seeks to forge links with businesses at a time when a growing number of employers are actively seeking to develop more inclusive workspaces. “What we’re trying to do is create almost a movement of change within businesses and support them to make a real shift in the way that they look at who they employ,” says Prof Shevlin.

The door has already opened a little, suggests his colleague, pathways co-ordinator Marie Devitt, and the centre seeks to grow the space by working with companies and its own graduates to find matches that are mutually rewarding. The aim is not just to find students work, but work they really want to do. “What we’re hoping to do is to shift the mindset based on what these amazing young people can do,” she says. “Because they’ve been so underestimated.”

The response, they say, has been very positive with more companies across a range of sectors wanting to get involved.

In professional services, EY’s experience of hiring graduates was positive enough. Indeed, it recently published a sort of “how to” guide” for other firms, setting out some of the ways in which issues such as recruitment, training and mentoring can be handled as positively as possible. “It’s not a rule book by any means,” Sarah Connellan, EY’s chief operating officer told The Irish Times back in December, “but a practical guidance on how an organisation might go about introducing such a programme based on our learning”.

“One of the things we look to do is build a better working working world,” she said, “and this has been such a positive experience for us, for the employees, for families, everyone has benefited . . . we’d love to see our clients and other companies look to do the same thing.”

The announcement by Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris last month of additional funding for more university places is another significant sign of progress. A unique one, says Prof Shevlin, who believes Ireland are starting to set something of an example on the third-level education front. At that launch, however, even the Minister acknowledged the amount of work left to be done in terms of employment opportunities, saying the numbers are not a source of pride.

That may be changing, but “amazing” will require a good deal more work.

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