Employers should focus on abilities, not disabilities

The Nesbitt Centre focuses on promoting abilities rather than disabilities, something which the disabled have found heartening. The centre, which offers English speaking educational programmes, works with sufferers of Down's syndrome and autism, and the learning disabled.

It helps to find its students work opportunities such as packing greeting cards, filing, and mailing. Some are being trained to work as baristas.

Kyaw Saing, 38, is one beneficiary who, before falling ill last year, had worked at the law firm Linklaters.

Arriving early in the morning and working until past noon on Tuesdays in his pressed shirt and khakis, the 38-year-old Down's syndrome sufferer stamped envelopes and prepared files and documents with the help of his job coach, Edward Bunker.

"He loves it. He can't really tell you exactly how he's feeling, but you see the difference when he's working," says his mother, Mrs Saing. "Even though Kyaw doesn't say I'm proud or I'm happy, you can feel it. You can see that when he has something to do, he's happy."