Resumania

We have spent the past week at the NCPPDSA. To further our understanding of employment disability issues unique to South Africa, we dedicated our first day to revieweing relevant legislation including:

• The Employment Equity Act: The employment equity act states the employers must employ a certain percentage of people with disabilities.
• The South African Bill of Rights: The South African Bill of Rights specifically states that unfair discrimination may not take place "on grounds of disability."
• The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act : The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act essentially states that discrimination may be unfair when one is treated differently by a person or group; but, that fair discrimination exists if people are treated differently because they have been previously disadvantaged in some way.

In spite of the aforementioned legislation, about 99% of people with disabilties in South Africa are unemployed. A primary objective of the NCPPDSA is to connect people with disabilities to suitable employment opportunities. NCPPDSA facilitates these connections through a resume database. We noticed that the majority of the resumes were very difficult to categorize and arrange becuase they were long and written according to few conventions.

In order to potentially expedite and improve the employment process, we created a comprehensive resume guide. Our guide incorporates conventions from most professional resumes in the United States (one page, clear, and concise), while also considering the South African context (incorporating national ID numbers and information regarding language spoken and ethnic background).

The intention of the guide is to provide people with disabilities a resource for resume creation that will result in resumes that more clearly reflect their career accomplishments. Consequently, the guide will hopefully improve the database and result in increased relationships between employers and people with disabilities.