“The decision to hire people with a disability is conditioned by my desire to give people a chance and gain from their special skills. I also want to create a better, more tolerant atmosphere in the team and to set an example for diversity. I was aware of the responsibility, so I contacted a service provider for jobseekers with a disability.”

“This service provider had one candidate, Mr. Barth. His qualifications, concentration, and ability to work very accurately, matched the tasks in the accounting department where we could use extra personnel. The service provider suggested to start with an internship, to find out whether the match was there for both sides, for us and for Mr. Barth. During this internship, Mr. Barth was intensively supervised by the service provider. For me, it did not take long to find out this would work out very well. Fortunately, this was also the case for Mr. Barth and for one of my staff members, his supervisor. We decided to continue our relationship and offered him a contract which he accepted. Now, he works six hours per day and earns according to his qualifications.”

“Mr. Barth has become a valuable colleague. He works very concentrated and precisely. His tasks include accounting and account maintenance. We have learned about his daily routines and ways of working. For Mr. Barth, processes must be exactly right. If something doesn’t go according to the plan, Mr Barth gets confused. For example, the account statement is not to be done every day, but only four times a week. However, Mr. Barth is used to the procedure of doing the account statement at the beginning of the working day. Otherwise, he cannot start the day. So, we decided to do the account statement every day, to support Mr. Barth in his work routine.”

“Also, he has to say goodbye to everyone by waving when they go home. Otherwise, he can’t leave the building. His colleagues join in, but sometimes they don’t see him because they are serving the guests. Then he stands for a long time and keeps waving. At first, this was annoying for his colleagues. Eventually they have accepted it and try to wave goodbye under all circumstances. But Mr. Barth has also learned to accept that it is not always possible and that he can still leave the workplace. His counsellor helped a lot in this. Dealing with Mr. Barth requires patience, but this boosts the team spirit and contributes to appreciation. We do not want to lose him as an employee.”

“Fortunately, we all pay attention to Mr. Barth’s need for fixed routines. We also take care not to disrupt the workflow and we are very careful and slow in introducing new tasks or changing the workflow. His colleagues take these specific features into account in their daily communication. I notice, it brings the team together. They are also tolerant of mistakes and misunderstandings among themselves.”