A disability friendly workplace

A disability friendly workplace benefits customers, employees and employers. These helpful tips on making your business more accessible come from The Ramp People.

Do you have a disability friendly workplace?

Whether you’re a small operation with just a few employees or a large company of hundreds, there are many advantages for an employer to provide accommodations to workers with disabilities in order to make their workplace disability friendly.

Even small adjustments can result in big differences that help improve equality in the workplace and make it easier to have a disability at work.
 

Why should employers hire disabled employees?

It should go without saying that equality in the workplace and employment of disabled people is just as important as equality elsewhere; being inclusive is just a nice thing to do!

But there are some other tangible benefits too. Creating a disability friendly workplace and employing disabled workers is beneficial to everyone, not just those with a disability.

By focusing on accommodating disabilities in the workplace, you can get you and your work environment ready for anyone with a physical or mental disability, which means you can widen your search and access a broader talent pool.

It also means you’ll be equipped to retain these skilled employees and keep your whole workforce happy.
 

Improve creativity and productivity

People with different skills and experiences can make an enormous difference to creativity and productivity at work, especially when everyone is happy and motivated. Over time, cultivating this type of inclusive workplace culture can even help improve your customers’ perceptions of your business and your brand image.

There are other practical benefits too. Happy and healthy employees are less likely to go absent or leave completely, which can result in surprising savings from sickness and staff turnover costs.

While you may need to invest time and some money to begin with, supporting disabled employees in the workplace is an investment in your business that will pay off in the long run.
 

Make sure you comply with the law!

If you’re still not convinced, then don’t forget about the Equality Act 2010. Addressing equality for anyone with a disability, the act means that all businesses have a legal requirement to make reasonable adjustments for accessibility.

A reasonable adjustment an employer may make can range from making buildings physically accessible to providing support and other adjustments.

Anyone not aiming for a disability friendly workplace is in danger of discrimination.
 

How do you address disability in the workplace?

Accessibility isn’t just about the actual building, nor only physical disabilities. From education, training and support to adjusting the way you operate, it’s up to you to make sure all your employees can perform their day to day tasks.

There are three main ways to accommodate disabled employees:

• Awareness and information
• Physical adjustments
• Flexible policy
 

Awareness and information

To nurture a disability friendly culture and make lasting changes in the workplace you need to start from the ground up. Awareness, education and support should make up the foundation of your new work culture. While this may sound daunting to begin with, there’s plenty of information and support out there to help employers.

Training sessions and workshops are an easy yet effective way of raising awareness in the workplace and getting all employees educated on the new changes you’ll be implementing and how they can help with supporting disability in the workplace.

Make sure information is accessible by giving everyone useful resources in several formats. This could include videos and audio files as well as leaflets and handouts.

Not only does this make sure information is accessible to anyone with a hearing or visual impairment, but it also makes the information easy to digest for everyone else.
 

Education isn’t one sided

To help encourage continual improvement with accommodating disabilities in the workplace, look at including everyone in regular support groups and feedback sessions. You can create separate ones to address the needs of different disabilities as well as inclusive ones so that everyone can have a say.

You’ll find many disabled workers in the workplace, as well as other employees, will have new and innovative ideas to improve the workplace that you might not have thought of, and it gives anyone with a disability a platform to help educate the rest of the workforce.
 

What is a reasonable adjustment in the workplace?

Making physical changes can be off-putting for many employers who may see this as expensive, time consuming and potentially obstructive to the existing workplace.

Fortunately, physical adjustments are now easier and more affordable than ever to implement, and you may be surprised by how a simple solution can make a significant difference.

Remember that you are only required to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate disabilities. So what might those be?
 

Ramps and handrails

These are the most obvious changes to make if there are steps or obstructions either inside or outside the building itself.

A permanent ramp may be a better solution long term, but you can also find various temporary ramps that are both portable and secure. While some of these ramps can’t be left in place permanently, they are designed to be easy to transport and store when not in use, and are a perfect solution for areas that haven’t been built with a ramp in mind and where installing one might be an obstruction to others.
 

Other physical obstacles

Less obvious are the potential problems caused by desks, monitors and cables to disabled access in the workplace.

Both desks and monitors can be made more accessible by making them adjustable. This will allow anyone to change the height of their desk and monitor screens, both of which can help to improve safety and comfort for the whole workplace, not just those with a disability.

Cable management systems can also help improve the safety of the workplace as a whole by hiding messy wires and creating a smooth bridge for both wheels and pedestrians.
 

Flexiblity for disability in the workplace

From recruitment to everyday operations, it’s also important to adjust current work practices to reflect the needs of your diverse workforce. Flexibility is key to making sure every disability is considered and addressed.

Changes will depend on the types of disabilities in your workforce and the type of business you run.

Disability assessments during the recruitment stage will help to highlight necessary adjustments that should be made, while feedback and support sessions will ensure any future problems are resolved quickly.

During early recruitment stages, employers can work with applicants to create a ClearTalents profile which is a quick and easy process for an initial assessment. This can give the employer deeper understanding of what might be required to get the work environment ready, and also provide the applicant with some early reassurance.

You might also want to consider a more detailed professional assessment during the final recruitment stages which will highlight if any initial or ongoing support should be implemented.
 

Take disability at work seriously

Once you have completed a more comprehensive assessment you should be ready to make adjustments to your workplace operations and organisation.

There’s now a wider variety of assisted technology than ever before, most of it affordable or even free. This includes accessibility features available on popular operating systems such as Windows and Mac OS which can help disabled workers in the workplace, including hearing and vision impairment as well as reading or spelling difficulties such as dyslexia.

As well as the work itself, you may find that the working day needs to be adjusted to suit various disability requirements.

This could mean providing more flexible work hours, more frequent breaks or even allowing some employees to work from home occasionally.

You should also think about other, more physical adjustments that might affect working with people with disabilities, including disabled parking and toilets – or even arranged transport, if this is a reasonable adjustment to include.
 

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Further reading and resources

Find out more about access ramps from The Ramp People

Jobcentres failing disabled jobseekers

Empowering Employees with Disabilities through Workplace Accessibility

Living well with long-term conditions.

British TV industry has a long way to go…

The Access to Work programme can help provide you with information and even assist with costs for more significant adjustments.

You can read more about the government’s Disability Confident scheme here

(external links below will open in a new browser window)

The Business Disability Forum has plenty of advice, support and training

Acas has tools, templates, training courses, workshops and much more to help with supporting disabled employees in the workplace

Find out more about ClearTalents here
 
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