Peter – Auto-CAD Engineer

“Being employed, gives me a sense of purpose.”

Not many people in the country can boast about having royal connections but Peter, 49, of Huddersfield can! Peter works as an Auto-CAD Engineer at Andel Ltd, a market leading company that installs leak detection systems. He uses computer aided design (CAD) software to design floor plans which are used as the basis for installing sophisticated systems that detect water leaks in buildings such as royal palaces, museums, galleries and office blocks.

A varied career

Peter, who has been deaf since birth, initially trained as a textiles designer. He then worked as a medical technology officer in a large hospital. Throughout his career, Peter says that being deaf has never really affected his ability to work. He now enjoys the challenge of his current role and likes working for a small employer. “Because it’s a small company, you get to know people really well and the atmosphere is fairly relaxed” says Peter.

Employer's story

The culture at Andel is relaxed and open and this extends to their approach to recruitment. “We welcome diversity and difference” says Operations Director, Julie Greenwood. “We believe that being inclusive makes our employees better people. As a company we’ve learnt a lot from our disabled employees, employees with different religious beliefs and from those who come from different racial backgrounds”.

Education and understanding

The company’s ‘education’ about disability has come mainly from its disabled employees. Managers have also learned about different disabilities and health conditions by sourcing relevant leaflets and searching for information on the internet.

Peter started working at Andel after the company was approached by Remploy, an agency which helps disabled people find employment. He undertook various roles including receptionist and administrator, before being invited by the management to undertake training in CAD. Now, as an Auto-CAD Engineer, his qualities and skills are used to their best advantage and he’s worked on some of the company’s most prestigious projects.

Peter was the first disabled person to be employed by Andel and Julie admits that there were challenges, one of which was learning how his deafness may potentially affect his capacity to work in specific roles. However, Peter was proactive in helping managers to understand exactly what and how he could hear, and provided information and tapes to help them learn more about deafness. Andel supports Peter by ensuring he works in an office where background noise is lower than in other offices.

In total, the company employ three disabled people and Julie comments that each member of staff is a real asset to the business.

Employee's story

There are almost nine million people in the UK with some degree of deafness, according to the RNID. Peter has high frequency deafness but he does have some hearing. He communicates with other employees using a combination of lip-reading and speech, and colleagues will also write short notes if necessary. Peter does not require any particular adjustments in his working environment and uses the same type of telephone as other employees, simply adjusting the volume control where necessary. During meetings, when several people may talk at any one time, Peter sometimes uses a special microphone which helps him distinguish between different voices and sounds.

Employability

Peter is aware that some employers will discriminate against disabled people. However, he believes that education and training can help to redress the balance.

He sees a role for both employers and employees in promoting the employability of disabled people. Employers, he says, should focus on ‘the person’ rather than their disabilities. As for disabled employees, Peter believes they can help employers to understand more about their disability and can help themselves by being prepared to “have a go and prove their capabilities”.

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