Boosting Disability Employment- My ideas

The recent announcements from the Government regarding changes to benefits have sparked conversations on what can be done to boost employment prospects for people with disabilities. Following on from this I have shared some ideas from my personal experience of how this process could be improved. I would be interested in others thoughts on this so please feel free to comment.

Education on Disability Rights

While legislation such as the Equality Act 2010 and inicitives such as the Disability Confident Scheme provide support and legal rights for disabled people, including when applying for work such as Reasonable Adjustments there is little education offered in schools to give examples. At my time of leaving school when applying for work I saw the term Reasonable Adjustments but I only thought this related to mobility or other obvious adaptions such as a BSL interpreter and not requiring this I didn't know what support I was entitled to as an autistic job seeker.

Shown below are the Disability Confident Employer Badges. You can find out more by visiting this website about what the scheme means and what you can do Disability Confident employer scheme - GOV.UK

The 3 levels of the scheme

Reasonable Adjustments

Although a legal right for disabled people to access this it can be challanging. One of the adjustments I have often struggled to get is the interview questions in advance to help me prepare as being neurodiversity I struggle with getting information on the spot and responding so need notes. This has been recommended best practice from an autism charity however when asking for this it is often refused due to being preferential treatment over fellow applicants. More education around best practice for interview processes for those with disabilities would be welcomed and work to carry out cultural change within the HR and management professions. With proper reasonable adjustments we can help make workplaces more accessible. I always find this video very useful and informative on highlighting approaches and some of the barriers

In work support

Appropriate training and disability awareness is important for all line managers and HR professionals to ensure that people with disabilities are in meaningful opportunities and feel able to progress with their careers. I feel I am quite lucky in that a number of my colleagues in my team have children/ grandchildren who are also autistic so there is good levels of natural awareness however through my workplace disability network I hear many horror stories about the lack of support that autistic colleagues in other teams face due to a lack of awareness of how their disability impacts on them. While it is welcome there are many courses and training sessions out there it is worth remembering that these cost hundreds of pounds to access which at a time when finances for many companies are stretched with the impact of NI increases and high utilities bills then many small businesses and public sector departments are unable to participate in these courses to help create an inclusive workplace. More training events could be ran by the Government or provision of funding to businesses to encourage their participation in these events.