Disability
Employers are increasingly eager to accommodate the UK's 11 million disabled people in the workforce; below we have listed some simple steps you can take to create an inclusive work environment all.
Developing an Inclusive Culture
- Disseminate a written disability policy (and where appropriate a Disability Equality Scheme) and clear procedures throughout the organisation.
- Review office layouts and accessibility.
- Review organisational policies and procedures to avoid direct or indirect discrimination.
- Develop consultation initiatives to increase feedback from disabled staff regarding policies and new developments.
- Ensure opportunities for individuals to request support for disabilities, including at job-application and interview stages.
- Make information more accessible by publishing it in alternative formats, for example, audio files, or large print.
- Consider the opportunities to work with specialist disability advisors and suppliers, in addition to identifying funding sources, such as the Access-to-Work grant scheme from Job Centre Plus.
- Incorporate disability-friendly IT adjustments; for example, consider the opportunities to provide software and assistive technology tools.
Disability-Awareness Training
- Provide disability awareness training for all staff.
- Integrate disability awareness into staff-induction programmes.
- Consider training mentors or buddies for disabled staff.
- Provide one-to-one skills training and coaching initiatives from a dyslexia specialist.
Develop New Communication Strategies
- Review all communication information, both internal and external, from signage to documents to multi-media. Consider both printed publications and information featured in electronic media.
- Use a variety of ways to present information, including video, charts, diagrams, and images as well as words on labels and signage.
- Enable staff to have a choice of coloured backgrounds and fonts on computer screens and coloured overlays for published material.
- Adopt a clear house style for all written materials.
Consider how the use of assistive technology and software can support reading digital information, e.g. text-to-speech software that reads information 'out loud' from websites, intranets and documents.
