Breaking down barriers
The UK’s Disability History Month (UKDHM) runs from 14 November to 20 December and this year the focus is on disability, livelihood and employment. The annual campaign, now in its seventh year, focuses on the fight for more support for people with disabilities.
In October to December 2023, almost a quarter of the working age population of the UK reported being disabled. But the number of people out of work who have disabilities is almost 28% higher than the number of those without disabilities. A report by UKDHM claims one of the main barriers to disabled people finding work is the attitude of employers.
It highlighted some of the adjustments that can be made to help make workplaces more inclusive, including mentoring and support schemes, fitting wheelchair ramps and installing audio-visual fire alarms for people with hearing impairments. It also called for changes to be made to recruitment processes, such as allowing extra time during tests, so people with disabilities aren’t at a disadvantage. It highlighted ways that today’s hybrid working can be adapted to better support disabled people, including allowing people with social anxiety disorder to have their own dedicated workspace instead of hotdesking.
The report said: “Impairment has always been part of the human experience, whether caused by accident, fighting and war, disease, genetics or malnutrition. It is the functional loss due to these causes that makes life harder and often more painful than for most people. Cultural and social explanation of the phenomena of impairment have generally been the biggest barrier to people with impairments.”