From December the onus will be on employers to prove they are not discriminating against people with disabilities.

A catch-all reference to the disabled in an equal-opportunities policy will fool nobody. It does not fulfil employers' long-standing moral, and soon-to-be legal, duty not to discriminate against people with physical, psychiatric and learning disabilities in recruitment and employment practices.

Ms Brege McCarrick, regional manager with the National Rehabilitation Board (NRB) Midlands North East, points out that in Germany, France, Portugal and Greece, private companies have to pay a levy if they do not employ a quota of people with disabilities. While the NRB is "not actively promoting a quota system", it runs the Positive To Disability programme, which increasing numbers of leading Irish companies have operated over the past couple of years.

Participating firms are entitled to use the Positive To Disability logo in advertising and recruitment literature.

The programme can improve staff morale and customer relations, reduce recruitment and training costs, and make a statement about the values underpinning the company.

Many disabled people are highly skilled, while their training and certification is often identical to that of non-disabled people.

"We're not asking anyone to employ someone who can't work," says Ms McCarrick.

Moreover, the Employment Support Scheme (ESS) offers financial support to employers who employ people with disabilities.

If a disabled person's productivity level is 80 per cent that of the average worker, the NRB pays the employer a grant for 20 per cent of the salary. If the employee works at 50 per cent of the average productivity level, the NRB pays the employer 50 per cent of the wage. That "can be a lifelong subsidy", she says.

The first step towards accreditation as a Positive-to-Disability employer is to get the free, easy-to-read resource pack from the NRB. This guides employers through best practice in: including people with disabilities in an equal opportunities policy; developing an action plan; providing equal opportunities training; checking a company's present position; developing practices that are positive to disability; retention, retraining and redeployment of people who become disabled while at work; and making the disability programme happen.

It points out, for example, that good practice includes: careful consideration of the wording of advertisements, where they are publicised and in what format; providing job descriptions and information in print and other formats; designing application forms with clear, clear print; answering all applications from people with disabilities; and, if required, providing a sign interpreter for an applicant with a hearing disability (for which funding is available from the NRB).

Having read the resource pack, you can make an application for accreditation at the nearest NRB centre. You will receive a self-audit questionnaire to help you to review your company's recruitment and training practices. This can help to identify developments that need to be completed before proceeding with the application.

When NRB receives the completed self-audit questionnaire, and if it believes the company's policy and practice is of a sufficiently high standard, it carries out an audit. Successful companies which acquire accreditation and are awarded the Positive to Disability symbol, are asked to complete an annual return showing the positive actions taken that year and the impact they had on the employment of disabled people.

"We're very careful with the symbol," and it is only awarded, and maintained, by companies with exemplary policies and practice, says Ms McCarrick.

Finally, this column should have mentioned last week that employers can receive grants from the NRB of up to £5,000 to adapt the workplace or equipment if they employ people with disabilities.

This could finance ramps for wheelchair users; alarm systems with flashing lights for people with hearing disabilities; voice synthesizers for visually impaired computer operators; toilets for the disabled; or adaptations to machinery, such as modifying a hand-operated machine to permit a disabled person to use his or her foot.