How to build a disability inclusive workplace

AbilityNet are a charity that exists to remove barriers to participation for disabled people at work, in education and in day to day life.

Creating a working environment that is inclusive by design is a game changer. According to a report by McKinsey and Company, diverse teams outperform uniform teams by 38%.

Also from a talent attraction perspective, according to a survey by Glassdoor, more than 3 in 4 people said a diverse workforce was an important factor when choosing an employer.

With 80% of disabled people acquiring their disability within their working life, building in accessibility and disability inclusion is a must-do for every organisation so that their team can perform at their best.

But how do you know where you are now and what you need to do to progress?

In this session we will:

• Talk about the moral, legal and business case for disability inclusion at work
• Reflect on each step of the disabled employee journey and consider how the culture currently feels in your organisations and the impact this could be having on teams.
• Talk about the barriers that you may encounter when planning and implementing change and improvements in this area
• Discuss ways to embed change in a lasting and positive way
• Whether you are just beginning your HR or equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) journey or are an experienced practitioner, this course will be useful in assessing the current experience for disabled people in your organisation. You will learn how to identify ways to improve this and open up your working environment further to the widest possible audience.

Learning objectives

At the end of this course you will be able to:

• recognise the advantages of proactively designing inclusivity into your working practices
• describe where your organisation currently sits on our disability inclusion gap analysis scale overall and at each stage in the employee lifecycle
• identify barriers that could stand in the way of implementing cultural change and how technology can act as an enabler
• make a plan to move forward