“Mediclinic Sees Me As A Person First”
Mlandeli Jordan, a scanner operator at Mediclinic Vergelegen, says Mediclinic’s inclusive and accessible environment ensures people with a disability can play a vital role in the workplace.
“People with disabilities face many challenges,” Mlandeli says, “but I’m very happy here at Mediclinic; it’s very inclusive in terms of access for all. From the get-go Mediclinic overlooked my wheelchair, and my disability. They saw me: a person who is fit for the job. There is room to grow here.”
“As a scanner operator I’m part of a team that converts hard clinical information into data that our IT systems can understand. That way, our procedures can be tracked and measured, and we can see how to improve. It means we can strive for excellent outcomes on par with a global standard.”
Mlandeli was injured in a robbery in 2002, leaving him paralysed from the waist down. “I was shot by a group of gangsters who were trying to rob me and my friends,” he explains. “I was declared L2 incomplete. This means my second vertebra was damaged, but not severed.”
“I wasted two years after my injury, depressed, thinking that all my dreams were shut down because I could no longer walk. But then one day I looked at my boy, who was turning three, and I said to myself, I cannot fail my son. This injury can’t be the end of me. And there is nothing wrong with my mind.”
“So I became involved with a work readiness training programme that focused on real-world skills development, and Disabled People South Africa, an advocacy group that stands up for the rights of people living with disabilities.”
“The experience taught me that many businesses and companies in South Africa aren’t truly disability-friendly. There are not just physical barriers, where workspaces aren’t designed to accommodate wheelchairs, but also human barriers – where people with disabilities aren’t regarded in the same way as their colleagues. For someone like me, to see there is no space for me, that can be depressing.”
“But at Mediclinic, I’ve never been seen as a disabled person. Mediclinic sees me as a person with a disability. As an employer, it really promotes a positive culture. It is inclusive here – not only the environment, but the people too. Mediclinic cares about us, and no one here sees me as different.”
Image Credit: New Media
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