Disability Employment Gap

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 22 May 2018.

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Photo of Ruth Maguire Ruth Maguire Scottish National Party

When we talk about the employment gap, we tend to focus on what we perceive to be the employability issues of individuals with disabilities. How should they change? What more do they need to learn? What extra support can be provided? Although employability programmes are crucial for some of our citizens who are furthest away from work, if we are serious about halving the disability employment gap, bringing an additional 120,000 disabled people into the workforce and retaining those who are currently in work, we have to acknowledge that a large part of the problem is societal.

The Poverty Alliance has highlighted the finding from its community engagement that almost all participants reported that the biggest challenge to disabled people’s employment was perceptions and myths—the myth that disabled people are generally less productive, the myth that they are more likely to have time off sick, the myth that they are likely to be a health and safety hazard at work and the myth that they are expected not to stay in a job in the long term.

Of course, some disabled people will not be able to work, to do certain kinds of work or to work for long periods, but many, many more are ready and willing, and for those folk it is not about the individual’s lack of skills or education, someone’s inability to manage a condition or their lack of confidence or motivation. It is about stigma, poor attitudes and discriminatory cultures, policies and processes.

We need to address those barriers in the path of disabled people. We need to address employers failing to make reasonable adjustments to workplaces because of fear of costs or lack of awareness. We need to address discriminatory policies and practices and assumptions about what a person can and cannot do. Those barriers are a product of other people’s attitudes. They are not about disabled people themselves but are a reflection on our society. We have to change the way that our society thinks about disability and employment, both because it is the right thing to do in terms of equality and fairness but also because, if we do not, we will miss out on talent, diversity and richness, and that would be no good for anybody—individuals, organisations or society.

To mark international disabled people’s day, Inclusion Scotland launched #myworkstory, which is a social media campaign to encourage disabled people to get talking about being disabled at work, including about what helps them to feel comfortable and confident and what gets in the way. It has started a conversation about everyday experiences in the workplace and what employers can do to make it easy for disabled people to be themselves and ask for and get the adjustments that they need. Jay, who took part, said:

“I have been working for many years now in different industries, and the reactions are always the same. ‘Oh no, you poor dear! What have you done?’, ‘Ouch’, ‘Didn’t think you’d be able to do that’ etc ... A lot of well meaning, if a tad ignorant, comments about how they didn’t notice that I was disabled straight away, and how brave I am for still working.”

Ethan, too, spoke to the challenges that he faced. He said:

“There was help when I transitioned from walking to using my wheelchair but in terms of being flexible around hours and workplace assessments I didn’t access these things and didn’t know what I could ask for. There was certainly no one that took on the responsibility of telling me about these things. There isn’t a menu stuck up on the wall that tells you what adjustments could be made, so you don’t know yourself what you can ask for. Employers don’t anticipate. Providing examples of adjustments is so important.”

To close the disability employment gap, we have to start to address the barriers of negative attitudes and exclusive practices. Employers need to change to become more accessible and inclusive. We need a focus on what Inclusion Scotland calls employerability. All employers can take positive steps to employ, retain and promote more disabled people. Inclusion Scotland’s report on the disabled people’s annual summit contains a very useful table of essential and desirable criteria for employers. I commend that report to members and to all employers, no matter the size of their organisation, and encourage all employers to do all that they can to ensure that they are not missing out on the ideas, talents and expertise of disabled people.