Raising awareness of disability in the workplace

At Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex, we are dedicated to advocating for equality, diversity, and inclusion and striving to eliminate bias and discrimination in health innovation. Our new EDI Champions blog series aims to help amplify the voices of the community and to provide a place for those advocating for equality in healthcare to share their insights.

In the first blog in the series, Helen Cooke, CEO and Founder of MyPlus, shares her insights into ensuring disability doesn’t prevent anyone from having the career they want to have. Helen is a wheelchair user and has extensive experience of providing progressive employers and individuals with disabilities with the confidence, insight and support they need to realise new possibilities.

The official definition of disability is:

“A person has a disability if they have a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long term adverse effect on their ability to carry our normal day-to-day activities.”

This is very much the medical model of disability which implies that it is the impact of the disability which means people can’t engage with society – whilst, in fact, much of impact comes from society putting up barriers.

It is also an all-encompassing term for a wide range of conditions. It can mean a physical disability, but it can also be a mental health condition, a hearing impairment, chronic pain, cancer, HIV or many other conditions. And with this variety comes differing abilities to carry out normal day-to-day activities. Some people may have invisible disabilities, and some people may not identify with the team “disability” in relation to their condition. No two people will be the same.

Neurodiversity

I want to dive in specifically to talk about neurodiversity since there is a lot of focus on this currently.

Neurodiversity is the concept that all humans vary in terms of our neurocognitive ability. Everyone has talents and things they struggle with. However, for some people, the variation between those strengths and weaknesses is more pronounced, which can bring talent but can also be disabling. Neurodiversity includes, but is not limited to, conditions such as autism, dyspraxia, dyslexia and ADHD.

In 1998 Harvey Blume wrote: “Neurodiversity may be every bit as crucial for the human race as biodiversity is for life in general” which is an incredibly powerful way of recognising the unique skills and strengths that neurodivergent individual have and which can make a positive different to society, and to workplaces.

My “plus”

MyPlus came from the concept that disabled people develop skills and abilities to manage their disability in a world that wasn’t designed with them in mind and to overcome the challenges that present themselves on a daily basis.  For example, I am incredibly determined as I’ve had to overcome barriers and people telling me I can’t do things. I’ve also developed great problem-solving skills to get around daily obstacles such as lack of access, and I’ve built communication and interpersonal skills in order to articulate to others what I need when I can’t do it myself.

Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group and billionaire entrepreneur, says “My dyslexia has shaped Virgin right from the very beginning and imagination has been the key to many of our successes.” His dyslexia gave him a different way of seeing the world, gave him the ability to dream and helped him to think big but keep messages simple

Disability in the workplace

People living with a disability have the same wants and aspirations as everyone else when it comes to work. However they may face additional concerns and questions.

Disclosure is one of these. 76% of people with disabilities don’t want to tell their employer. This can be for many reasons including fear if discrimination, not wanting to “cause a fuss”, out of embarrassment or not wanting to be treated differently.

While an individual does not have to be open about a disability with employers, it can be helpful as it allows them to request the support they may need in the workplace. Employers should therefore be proactive in encouraging openness by creating a culture of inclusivity, normalising disability, providing role models through authentic leadership and providing education to help employees understand the benefits of being a disability inclusive organisation. In recruitment this might look like articulating your approach to diversity / disability, providing reassurance as to how information will be used and confidentiality, making it easier for candidates to be open and educating on the benefits of being open.

Adjustments and support

The law on reasonable adjustments makes it clear that an employer should take steps to remove, reduce or prevent the obstacles disabled workers or job applicants face where it’s reasonable to do so.  “Reasonable adjustments” is a legal term and incredibly ambiguous. Rather than an employer asking an individual what ‘reasonable adjustments’ they need, a better way of phrasing this is: “How can we support you to perform to your full potential?”.

This might mean changing the way things are done, such as the way meetings are run, changing a physical features, such as wheelchair access, or providing extra support, such as provision of an interpreter. 58% of adjustments don’t cost anything at all and 35% are a one-off cost. The cost of providing an adjustment for an employee who becomes disabled is 7% the cost to recruit.

Getting comfy with disability

Disability is an uncomfortable topic for many people, and some are worried about saying or doing the wrong thing. Here are my top tips for getting comfortable with disability:

• Language matters – think about the words you are using and use a person’s preferred terms
• Respect people’s comfort levels
• Don’t make assumptions or anticipate problems
• Learn from your experiences
• Recognise that there is a time and place for conversations about disability
• Focus on what support someone needs; not what their disability is
• Don’t assume that you know how a disability affects an individual
• Be aware of the assumptions you are making about a person’s ability or requirements
• You shouldn’t ask someone to ‘prove’ their disability if they are requesting support or an adjustment

Visit MyPlus to find out more about Helen’s work.

Learn more about Health Innovation KSS’s approach to EDI and our work in health inequalities, here.