Trish Woodcroft-Lee
Employment history
I was born with a vision impairment and the jobs I have held have been:
Research assistant;
Admin officer
policy officer
Writing reports and ministerial correspondence;
analysis of documents and reports;
Equal employment opportunity coordinator;
Voluntary worker (translator and admin person);
Industry
I worked in a university (temporary) and in the public service (permanent). Also as a volunteer for not for profit groups. I also worked in cleaning and tea making jobs;
Challenges
The greatest challenge is employer perceptions. No matter how well qualified you are people see you as inferior;
You would not be able to match up to sighted people;
Your range of jobs would be limited.
How To Overcome Challenges
I tried to educate people around me about what I could and couldn't do. Sometimes this worked, sometimes it didn't. Generally it worked with my immediate work team, but the thought of doing it all over again undoubtedly limited my ability to apply for other jobs.
My last position in the Australian Public Service, Office of Disability was very good. People went out of their way to be helpful. The Office had some attributes that were very much in the favour of staff with disabilities, it was a small specialised area that functioned more or less independently of the rest of the Department.
I would probably say now to young people, find something that's specialised and find a market for it. When I arrived in East Timor in 2001 saw a volunteer, the manager of the place where I was working looked at me as though wondering what on earth she would do with me. After a few incidents where she had to rely on me for translations, the attitude faded somewhat. It faded altogether over the three years I've been going up and down there.
If I had known what I know now, I would have concentrated on my language skills and then taken them somewhere where they were in high demand, but I was side tracked by the then public service attitude that language was an add on, you could more or less teach it to anyone, what mattered was administrative knowhow.
My last official qualification was Masters in Public Policy, ANU 1990.
Contact Details
Mrs C.P. Woodcroft-Lee
180A Station
St
Fairfield Vic 3078
Tel: 03 9481 4232
Mobile: 0407 580 777
E-mail: cpwl@ozemail.com.au