They promise proprietors will have no regrets. 

“Just give it a go, you’ll be surprised,” Care West CEO Tim Curran urged business owners. 

Mr Curran said Orange was not immune from a nationwide attitude that employers had against people with disabilities.

He said employers often had a view that it was too difficult to make changes to the workplace to accommodate disabilities and people with disabilities would not be as capable as others.

“The research suggests the main reason why there’s a low employment rate for people with disabilities ... is the attitudes of employers,” Mr Curran said.

“We have in Australia a very egalitarian society where we give people a fair go but it generally doesn’t include people with disabilities.

“The workplace participation rates [of people with disabilities] are some of the lowest in any OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) country.” 

Mr Curran’s comments come after a report from the Australian Human Rights Commission released this month cited numerous examples of workplace discrimination against people with a disability.

The report says Australians with a disability are twice as likely to be unemployed as those without a disability and young people are at a greater risk of experiencing discrimination in the workplace, 

Mr Curran said it was a sad reality for people with disabilities living in Orange and said clients regularly did not make it through to a job interview because they divulged they had a disability. 

“It’s employers attitudes they just don’t realise people with a disability make capable employees,” he said.

Studies show people with a disability are more loyal employees, they have high retention rates and fewer work place health and safety claims.

Mr Curran said employers can contact CareWest and organise a trial with a client and a support worker and were under no obligation to proceed with hiring a person