Supporting Employees with Disabilities at Work (Infographic)

Calling yourself an inclusive employer is very different to actually being one. Supporting employees with disabilities is essential if you want to live up to your legal responsibilities as an employer, and to your duty to society to build a truly inclusive workplace where everyone is free to meet their full potential. 

In this infographic, we explore some of the most essential things to remember when it comes to supporting employees with disabilities in the workplace. 

Disability in the workplace: the facts

• 10.21 million working-age people in the UK considered themselves to be disabled at the year end of 2023
• 5.53 million working-age people who considered themselves to be disabled were employed 
• In 2024, the employment rate for people who are disabled was 54.2%
• Disabled people are more likely to work part time than those who aren’t disabled 
• The UK disability employment gap (the difference between the employment rate of disabled/ non-disabled employees) is 29% 
• The proportion of working-age disabled people in poverty is 27% – 8% higher than non-disabled people

Attitudes towards Disability in the UK

Despite positive moves towards greater equality and tolerance in the last few decades, discrimination and prejudice against disabled people still exists in society. 

• 72% of disabled people have experienced negative behaviour or attitudes in the past 5 years 
• 87% of these disabled people said that this has had a negative impact on their daily life 
• 33% of disabled people have experienced assumptions about their capability 
• 25% of disabled people have been accused of faking their disability, or not being truly disabled(Attitudes and disability (2022)
• 19% of disabled people have experienced people staring (Attitudes and disability (2022)

How to Support Employees with Disabilities 

Supporting employees with disabilities is a task that needs good listening skills. To do it well, you’ll need to clear your mind of preconceptions. It can often mean grappling with our own unconscious biases – however well-meaning they might be.

  Ask yourself, what things do disabled employees are personally telling you that they need, as opposed to what things do you assume they need? Listen to people and let them tell you in their own words, as opposed to speaking for then. 

1. Identify employee needs

To create a strategy for how you can support disabled employees in the workplace, you’ll need to identify their specific needs. That means approaching them directly and asking for their feedback. 

• Arrange one-on-one conversations with disabled employees to understand the experience of disabled employees
• Build collective feedback mechanisms, like honesty boxes, anonymous surveys and feedback sessions
• Run focus groups to gather information and feedback

Prioritise the voice of disabled employees when it comes to implementing things that affect them

2. Understand the law…

One of the most basic ways that you can support disabled employees in your workplace is understanding the law. Statue gives organisations the bare minimum framework on which to build a culture of support and 

Essential legislation for disabled employees

• Equalities Act 2010: 
• Seeks to protect disabled people from discrimination at work and in wider society
• Disability is a ‘protected characteristic’, making it illegal for a disabled person to be discriminated against on the basis of their disability
• An employee is considered disabled if they have ‘a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative effect on someone’s ability to do normal daily activities.’
• UN Convention on Disability Rights 
• Seeks to improve and protect the rights of disabled people by focusing on their autonomy and fundamental freedoms

3. ..and your understand your responsibilities under it

When you understand what the law says, you can gain a greater understanding of your responsibilities under it and why they matter. Deeper awareness of the law will give you deeper awareness of what you must do to help support employees with disabilities at work. 

• Employers have a legal duty to ensure that disabled people are not discriminated against in the workplace in things like: contract terms and conditions, performance reviews, promotion opportunities, absence management, learning and development opportunities, pay, employment termination.
• Under the Equality Act 2010, you have a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments to a disabled employee’s working arrangement and environment if asked
• Failure to prevent discrimination at work can result in expensive tribunal claims, compensation and hefty fines.

4. Make reasonable adjustments

Employers are expected to make reasonable adjustments when it comes to helping disabled people reach their full potential at work. The Equality Act 2010 makes this a statutory duty. 

• Reasonable adjustments are changes that are made to the way that disabled employees work. It means making sure that disabled employees ‘have the same access to everything involved in doing and keeping a job as non-disabled workers.’ 
• You must make reasonable adjustments to a disabled employee’s role if asked
• Reasonable adjustments can include things like:
• Changing recruitment processes
• Physically changing the workplace
• Allowing work to be completed somewhere else
• Providing or changing equipment
• Changing working hours
• Improving training opportunities

5. Work with employee representatives to gain honest feedback

Sometimes employees will not feel safe enough to speak individually about a problem that affects them personally to you.  

Having a collective voice, or an employee representative, like a union representative raise concerns on their behalf, can help improve the honesty of the feedback you receive, allowing you to provide better support to your disabled employees 

• Establish an employee forum for disabled employees to give feedback
• Encourage the formation of employee networks and build capacity
• Work with trade unions to improve the experience of disabled employees in the workplace
• Work with employee representatives to improve the workplace experience of disabled employees

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