Why was this employment opportunity important?
While education levels are improving for disabled people in Ireland, disability continues to increase a person’s risk of poverty, reduces employment opportunities and results in poorer health outcomes. With this in mind, the project aimed to provide six months of gainful employment for an autistic or visually impaired person, enabling them to fulfill their potential.
It was critical that the recruitment process for this entry level role, Inclusive Museum Project Assistant, was fully accessible and promoted through the relevant local and national networks.
A total of six applicants applied for this role. This included one person with visual impairment and six autistic people. The latter were all in their early to mid twenties.
Role Description
Dochás Autism Mid-west, Employability Limerick and staff and autistic youth at Limerick Youth Service’s Ability+ programme helped the Museum to draft the role description. It was written in plain English. Proper headings were used so that it was screen reader accessible. Only essential information was provided.
The Role Description explained that the successful applicant would be supported by a mentor, who would work with them to set and to achieve goals and to identify and organise training to help them succeed in their role.
The minimum level of education required from candidates was the Leaving Certificate. A “Main Areas of Work and Related Tasks” section was provided instead of a lengthy and potentially daunting list of “Key Accountabilities”. This enabled applicants to quickly get an overview of the types of projects and related tasks that they would be expected to carry out in the role. The list of required skills was intentionally restricted, so as not to discourage those with low levels of confidence, or little or no employment history.
The role was promoted through Specialisterne, Employability Limerick, National Learning Network (Limerick) and through Hunt Museum social media channels.
Access the Role Description here
Online Application Form
Following the advice of Disability Services at the University of Limerick, Microsoft Office Forms was used to produce the accessible online application form for the role. It provides an immersive reader which is easily enabled and used by persons with visual impairment. It also works well with JAWS, popular desk top screen reader software which is widely used by the blind/visually impaired community.
Access the application form for this role here
This form was clearly structured:
Section 1 required applicants to provide basic contact information
Section 2 required applicants to provide basic educational information including details on training completed and qualifications achieved.
Section 3 included five competency based questions which were carefully worded so that applicants who had no previous employment history could easily draw examples from their experiences in educational or vocational training settings.
Section 4 encouraged applicants to tell us about their accomplishments.
Applicants were also required to submit a 2-3 minute video outlining why they were interested in the role.
The interview process
All applicants were invited to a relaxed in-person interview at the Hunt Museum. They were advised that they could bring a supporter with them if they wished. They were also supplied with the interview questions so as to reduce anticipation anxiety and to give them time to prepare. These questions were closely linked to those in Section 3 of the application form. This interview format was very conversational and as hoped, it helped to put the applicants at ease.
The successful candidate
Saoirse McInerny started in the Inclusive Museum Project Assistant role on April 18th 2024. She brought great passion for and working knowledge of accessible design to the project. While in the role, she completed an accessibility audit of the Hunt Museum website and created pre-visit resources, some of which have already been shared through the Visitor Accessibility webpage. She also supported and contributed to working group meetings and projects.
View one of the projects that Saoirse delivered during here employment. It is a video based tour of the Hunt Museum. Its purpose is to introduce autistic people to the main spaces in the Museum and to highlight sensory challenges that they may encounter during their visit.