France Bleu Saint-Etienne Loire: What do you think today of “duo days”, a day during which people with disabilities spend a day in a company alongside an able-bodied employee? Last year there were 27,613 duos nationally. It's not much, isn't it?
Martine Robert, co-governor of the “Prisme 21 Loire” association: It's already not bad. We are only at the beginning of the integration of people with intellectual disabilities into the ordinary workplace. We love these days because it allows a person with a disability to spend a day in an ordinary company. In one day, we still have time to get to know each other and it's an opportunity to do a little test of sorts, without there being any commitment on either side.
You have more than 220 partner companies. What is their main obstacle when welcoming one of your beneficiaries?
First of all, there are all the preconceived ideas that the association is trying to dust off. We don't know, we don't know, it's a little scary. This is why within the association, we created an SAT outside the walls, a Work Support Service, integration officers who support people with disabilities in the workplace. As long as necessary, until the person knows his colleagues, the place, the tasks that can be given to him well and little by little, this support becomes lighter and lighter, until it becomes completely useless.
Can businesses fear reduced productivity?
I'm not sure what the productivity is, because often the companies that commit have a goodwill towards the people followed. It's not a long, quiet river, it's sometimes a little long, a little complicated, but when it works well, we often get feedback from companies saying that they had never taken the time to look into this. question or reorganize a service. Ultimately we realize that it is better for everyone within the company, not just for the person being welcomed.
Precisely on the side of the disabled person. Does inclusion through work change everything?
We often say that we work for the exercise of the rights of these people. They have the rights, like everyone else. On the other hand, exercising these rights is often more complicated. We are talking about fundamental rights: the right to school, to work, to housing, to health. Being in an ordinary environment is much more fulfilling for the person, much more rewarding and it allows you to understand the codes, the ways in which society operates and therefore to be better adapted to it.
Do you apply in your organization, in your association, what you advocate: kindness and inclusion?
What we advocate is that the person always comes first. That is to say, we stop thinking for him without asking him. Within the association, we are in shared governance with sixteen co-governors including five with intellectual disabilities who participate in votes, projects, and everything that happens in the association.
