Paralympian Jason’s medal-winning ambition to champion diversity
10 Oct 2024
Having the lower part of his right leg amputated when he was just a child was not, says Jason Diederich, as devastating as most of us would imagine.
“When you are 10 you don’t catastrophise things as much as you might when you are an adult,” says the Ingeus Clinical Operations Director.
A muscle condition in one leg led to it becoming 10cms shorter than the other, affecting his movement and causing pain.
“I decided to go ahead with the amputation so I could have a prosthesis which evened up my legs and I instantly felt better.
“In terms of my career, my schooling, my social life, it hasn’t impacted that much.
“I can do pretty much what anybody else can do. I play tennis, I go for long walks, I can climb ladders, anything except, as a mate points out, do the high jump!”
Fortunately Australia-born Jason did not opt for the high jump as his favoured sport. Instead he chose swimming and won silver medals at the Seoul Paralympics in 1988 and Barcelona four years later, representing his country at the World Disability Championships between those two events.
While being an amputee has not affected his life functionally, it has “shaped who I’ve become in terms of how I see the world as a person with a disability as well as how I see disability in the world,” he says.
He became an occupational therapist and then grew his career at Ingeus’ parent company APM in Australia, working in the return-to-work sector and progressing through managerial roles.
Last year his experience led to an offer from Ingeus to oversee its clinical teams for a new service providing functional assessments.
Moving halfway across the world has not lessened his drive to champion the rights of people with a disability.
He joined Ingeus’ Diversity & Inclusions employee representative groups and now leads their Disability Network. Jason says: “We have an active commitment to diversity and are a Disability Confident Leader, supporting other organisations to become disability aware.
“Colleagues with a disability that managers might need to know about are offered a ‘passport’ that details any workplace adjustments, from workstations to time off, so they don’t need to have the same conversation about their needs every time they move to new roles.
“From the start of our recruitment process we encourage people to share if they have a disability. People sometimes fear a negative response but if we know, we can support them. If they don’t feel comfortable to share, then that’s OK as well.
“My advice to jobseekers is to be upfront about any disability. It is who you are, it is part of your identity. If an employer doesn’t want to take you on because of that, then you don’t want to work there.
“We recognise we can deliver a better service to our customers when our teams reflect the communities we serve. That’s not just disability, it’s LGBTQ, race and ethnicity, culture, gender. This is why diversity is so important to us.”
Jason’s mantra is to make disability ordinary.
He says: “I was watching the Paralympics in Paris this summer and we see these top sports people, but they come home and can’t reach the sauce on the top shelf of the supermarket. They can’t get on the underground to go to work. They can’t get a job because the employer doesn’t think they are capable.
“We need to create more opportunities for people with disabilities to be seen as ordinary – not superhumans or people who deserve our pity.”
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