How automotive can do more to help people with physical or non-visible disabilities

If you look at the bottom of nearly every job advertisement in the automotive sector, it’ll likely state that you must have a full, clean driving license. So, if you’re partially sighted like myself, it instantly shuts the door on the industry.

And why, not every job actually requires the ability or need to drive a car.

I started off as a modern apprentice, doing business administration. My first placement was in a Scania dealership called Road Trucks. The business was right beside the bus depot, so it meant public transport was fairly easy to use to commute to work.

The automotive industry offers a huge spectrum of career opportunities, I started off as a warranty administrator trainee. I finished my modern apprenticeship, got a full-time job in the Road Trucks business and ended up being the warranty administrator for both its depots and a point of contact for a subsidy of its too.

Since then, my career has thrived. I left there and went to work for another dealership. Then my wife and I upped sticks and headed to England, as a lot of people from Ireland do, to work for Scania at its head office in Milton Keynes. I headed back home, staying with Scania getting involved in the business development side of things. Have moved to the construction industry before moving to my current role at Autoguard Warranties as a regional manager. I’ve even earned a Masters degree from Loughborough University.

I’ve enjoyed a varied and exciting career so far, and far more people in a similar situation to me, with physical and non-visible disabilities, could too.

Through my studies and getting to know Jim Saker, who heads the IMI’s Diversity Task Force, I’ve become part of this important project, looking to make real change in our industry.

I've been using my experience to advise how I have found working in the motor industry and the difficulties I have come across in the hope we can reduce the barriers to entry.

We’ve all heard about businesses making reasonable adjustments to help people do their job. And they don’t have to be huge investments. A reasonable adjustment could be a £20 bracket from Amazon, so you can adjust the screen level, an adjustable desk or an adjustable chair. It's about trying to get the industry to do more, to say to themselves, hold on a minute, these small few hundred-pound investments could bring me another employee that I was struggling to get. If you look at what other industries are doing, you see it can be done.

That’s not to say things haven’t improved since I joined the industry, but it can get better.

Advancements in technology – both hardware and software – have hugely assisted somebody who's partially sighted, for example. And, when linked to a range of other commonsense adjustments, help others into automotive too no matter what physical or non-visible disability they have.

It all means automotive’s ability to bring in more talent to its ranks, fill the skills gap and offer opportunities to a wider section of society become turbocharged.