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A minor but interesting feature of
mobilisation is that the scheme to utilize persons who, through physical
disability, have not hitherto been able to take their place in
industrial employment.
In the autumn of 1941 an interim
scheme for vocational training and placing of employment of disabled
person was introduced. The training is provided either in the Ministry’s
own centres or in Technical Colleges, and it may be in munitions work or
in other essential occupations.
Specialised training is also provided
at three residential Colleges run by voluntary organizations with many
years experience. Every effort is made to overcome the prejudice that
exists against the employment of persons suffering from some kind of
disability, and to persuade employers them to train them.
The scheme has made a useful
contribution to the war effort; more than that, it has demonstrated
that, given a chance, person handicapped by some kind of disability are
fully capable of skilled employment, and can hold their own in ordinary
competition with able-bodied workers.
Another field in which this scheme has
achieved success is in the employment of the blind, for whom it has been
found that many forms of industrial occupation, sensitiveness of touch
is almost as important as sight, blind persons are now undertaking
successful work that in peace time would have been thought to be beyond
their capacity. This interim scheme, which was introduced as a war
measure, forms the basis of permanent scheme to secure the post-war
rehabilitation and re-settlement in useful employment of disabled
persons.
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