People living with a disability have varied experiences, challenges, and skills, which can contribute additional value to any workplace, making it important to consider accessibility and the ability to accommodate employees with different mobility needs in the workplace. Employees with a disability represent a substantial opportunity for businesses.
34% of people with a disability are managers or professionals – so if you’re not set up to accommodate a diverse workforce, you could be missing out on valuable talent.
Studies show that employing a person with a disability cost no more than hiring someone without a disability. Furthermore, 1 in 3 people living with a disability have terminated their transactions with a business when they found that they did not have good values in their dealings and employment of people with a disability.
There is considerable evidence supporting the case for a more diverse workplace, with studies showing that people with disability are more loyal and remain more productive in the workplace compared to most other cohorts. Similarly, studies have also found that people with disability have much better attendance records and higher productivity rates compared to other “mainstream” employees.
In many cases, employers may not realise that some of their current employees have an undisclosed disability, which means it’s important to ensure your workplace is disability-friendly, regardless of whether you actively hire people with disability. By considering all potential employees regardless of age or ability in their recruiting strategy, organisations have greater access to talent with a diverse range of experiences, perspectives, abilities and skills.
An inclusive workplace can also help to enhance and build your reputation and brand. Both employees and customers have shown to be more loyal to organisations that demonstrate good values, reflecting on your business and community. Furthermore, by indicating this, it is more likely that you will improve customer retention, giving you an advantage over your competitors.
How to accommodate disabled employees
Here are some tips for employers who are looking to make their workplace more accessible and to accommodate employees who are living with disability, illness, or injury:
1. Create an Accessibility Action Plan
An Accessibility Action Plan (AAP) (also known as a Disability Action Plan) is a set of processes and procedures designed to inform staff about how to implement accessible practices. Organisations that have an AAP are often seen as inclusive and are more attractive to employees.
Examples of actions in an AAP may include:
- Ensuring all locations and facilities are wheelchair accessible.
- Providing disability awareness seminars for your employees.
- Providing different information or promotional resources to cater to those with vision or hearing impairments.
- Implementing a Customer Engagement survey for customers with disability on accessibility of products and services.
- Creating an Inclusive Events checklist to be used for all events in the workplace.
Employing people with disability is not only a great way to find fantastic new staff, but it also enhances corporate reputation, economic growth, and prevents financial discrimination. Creating an inclusive recruitment process can greatly reflect your organisations values and commitment, and there are ways to include it throughout the process. For example, you can:
- Review the description when you advertise jobs to reflect the essential requirements of the role and note any flexibility in requirements.
- Consider including statements in your advertising material such as “We are an equal opportunities employer who will provide reasonable adjustments for people with neurodiversity and people with disability”.
- Advertise roles through specialist disability recruitment services such as APM who are a Disability Employment Service (DES) provider.
3. Have Accessible Places and Spaces
Accessibility is crucial in removing barriers so that everyone has equal access, and it also makes good business sense. There are some arrangements you can do immediately to make your organisation more accessible and at little cost, such as:
- Ensuring you keep walkways clear and clean, free from hazards.
- Consider ground floor meeting rooms.
- Provide accessible print materials (consider braille, text-to-speech, easy-to-read fonts, photos) and promote the use of screen readers.
- Offer flexible Point-of-Sale (wireless EFPTOS, online check out, and delivery).
- Checking and rearranging office supplies and furniture to ensure accessibility to those with mobility challenges and make the necessary workplace adjustments.
- Provide existing employee training on disability awareness to help your organisation be more supportive when working with people with disability.
- Ensure lighting is adequate.
- Workplaces often forget spaces like the kitchen or common areas during audits. Including a focus group can help avoid any oversights.
- Consider flexible working arrangements and working hours.
This may include physical access to your office or shop floor, including ramps, wheelchair lifts, or space to manoeuvre walkers and mobility scooters. You may also want to consider whether desks can be adjusted to suit those in wheelchairs or mobility scooters.
4. Create Inclusive and Accessible Events
These events not only increase awareness but promote inclusivity and diversity and helps create great long-lasting communities. To make sure you are creating an inclusive and accessible event you can:
- Stay up to date with annual awareness events such as Multicultural Month, International Day of Disability, Disability Action Week and AccessAbility day.
- Ensure people who use wheelchairs can move freely across the whole premises, including exits and entrances.
- Check that there are accessible toilets with features for wheelchair users, including wider doors, floor space, and appropriate fixtures.
- Create and refer to an Inclusive Events checklist to help ensure your event is accessible and inclusive.
Websites provide a unique opportunity for customers to access information about your company’s services, as it communicates using different methods to everyone. However, some people with disability may require assistive technologies to properly access information online, and here’s how you can help:
- Consider using plugins to help users easily read your content. E.g. WordPress (WP) Accessibility, a multi-function plugin that solves common accessibility issues.
- Use Alt-Text for people who use screen readers to access websites. Alt-Text is the written copy that appears in place of an image on a webpage and helps screen-reading tools describe images.
- Include subtitles and transcripts if you are uploading videos to your website.
The Disability Discrimination Act is also a handy resource to consult to advice and guidance on how to make your workplace accommodate employees living with a disability.
