Victoria Burns
Victoria
My name is Victoria Burns and I work for Fraktul, a marketing and business development company.
It actually took me 18 months to find employment – I applied for numerous jobs and I got interviews, but I never secured employment.  I few of them actually told me that I was over-qualified for the job that I was applying for, but I started to kind of think that maybe my disability was the issue as to why I wasn’t getting employment.  Initially I just kept trying, but then towards the end I was getting a bit down and disappointed that I wasn’t getting any further forward.
I actually went for a job interview at Whitefriar Surgery and I got down to the final three. I went for the interview, but as before I didn’t get the employment, but the person who interviewed me knew Steven.
Stephen
Well Fraktul is a marketing and business development company – we help other businesses and organisations sell more or promote themselves.  We set Fraktul up in 2009 – it was just myself working out of a spare bedroom, and we then moved into some offices and that is when we started to think about employing somebody else.  It was difficult to know how we would specify the type of person we were looking for, and actually we heard about Victoria through a friend and neighbour of ours who mentioned that he had met Victoria in an interview process and that might be helpful to us.
Victoria
I have been here since March 2011, so just over 2 years.  My job involves marketing, website design, networking.
Stephen
We have had to make some special arrangements and adaptations to help Victoria in the workplace – we sourced the office that we are sitting in – we were very careful when we did that to make sure that it was going to be one that would be suitable.  The other adaptation that we had to make was a chair so that Victoria could get around the office better and also adapting that so that she was able to help us make teas and coffees for visitors and such like.
Victoria
Initially I was having some trouble with my balance, so it was Capability Scotland put me in touch with them and the Access to Work programme and they funded my wheelchair.
Donna Murray-Trail
So Victoria had already found the job herself and I had been introduced to her following one of the previous Officers leaving.  So I was in the great position of coming into a new company, with a very enthusiastic employer and a very talented employee.  And really my role over the last year and a half or so has really been to mediate or support both the employer and the employee to allow them just to get on with their work.
Victoria
I was having some trouble carrying out my hospitality role – I wasn’t able to carry tea or coffee sitting in my chair.  But we got in touch with Remap Scotland who are a group of retired engineers that build bespoke equipment for disabled people.
Stephen
The solution that Remap were able to come up with was an adapted tray that was able to hold cups, and for example cafetieres for coffee in a stable way, so that that could be clipped onto her chair when she is needing it and then removed when she is doing other work.
Donna Murray-Trail
Stephen recruited somebody based on their ability to do the job – it was a very ordinary process, and yes there has been some challenges, but there would be challenges for any new employee and I think that is the message to a lot of employers – is actually look at their talents, look at their qualifications, look at their skills and look at their potential.  You know, it is not so hard to get people into the workforce – I think it is much more about ensuring that they develop to their full potential once they are there.
Stephen
Having some third party support from somebody like Capability Scotland has been very, very useful in helping us to provide the right environment for somebody working with us who has disabilities.
Donna Murray-Trail
I mean the whole idea of how we work is that we move to a stage where the employee is unsupported, because they don’t necessarily need that like every other employee.  So we would be aspiring to move Victoria into a kind of unsupported role when she is ready and when Steven is ready.  There is no real time limit on that – it is when everybody feels happy about that.
Stephen
What I would say to another employer who was perhaps reluctant to consider somebody with a disability would be:  ‘don’t worry about it,  give it a try’.  People are all human.  Don’t be afraid, but do communicate.  And it is all about actually asking the difficult questions and understanding the issues surrounding somebody’s disability, that you can make sure that you can overcome it.
Victoria
Being able to work now, it has given me a lot of confidence and self-esteem and I feel like I am being able to give something back to the community and stuff, so yes, it’s been good.

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