Out of the 14.6 million disabled people in the UK, it is estimated that only a third are employed. Very few organisations are aware of the barriers that hinder a person with disabilities from finding and retaining employment; as a result, businesses are missing out on a large source of untapped talent and compromising the strength of their workforce.
Disability inclusion in the workplace is not just about hiring disabled people. It’s about creating a welcoming, comfortable and accessible work environment where employees with visible and non-visible disabilities are valued for their contributions, appreciated for their skills and given an equal opportunity to succeed.
With almost 73% of disabled workers in the UK falling out of work because of their disability or long-term health condition, it is important to understand how your organisation can make reasonable adjustments to create and maintain a supportive and accessible disability-friendly workplace.
Join our Inclusive & Accessible Workplaces: Supporting employees with visible and non visible disabilities webinar on Wednesday 13th July to see what you can do to improve disability inclusion in your workplace.
We will discuss:
The Equal Group’s expert consultants regularly advise forward-thinking organisations on how they can improve their equality/equity, diversity and inclusion performance.
Olga Chernyavska is a qualified Humanistic Integrative Counselor with over a decade experience in the therapeutic field. Olga is known for helping clients improve relationships with themselves and others, helping them to achieve the ability to better deal with overwhelming situations (stress, anxiety), feel calmer, react appropriately to here/now (not the past), increase kindness and compassion, enhance capacity to address their needs and self-care, realise own boundaries and learn to say ‘no' as well as find a balance.
Olga has a recognised qualification in equality and diversity and completed formal work-related health and safety training both give her insight into people's experiences in relation to work problems and stress.Olga has particular experience of working with people with physical disabilities and has been actively involved in Disabled Staff forum, promoting equality and inclusion for all. Olga keep herself updated through her links with professionals, academics and community, regarding latest developments.
After leaving secondary school at 15 without GCSEs and a series of short-term stints working in retail and hospitality, Lillie established herself on an Executive Assistant career path. She went on to work for small organisations in cross-functional roles encompassing marketing, operations and administration and providing Executive Assistance to business leaders.
Lillie returned to education at the age of 27, where her tutor identified consistent errors in her work which lead to a formal diagnosis of Dyslexia. Empowered by the diagnosis and adjustments that followed, she saw a significant rise in her grades and graduated successfully with BA Hons in Creative Writing and English Literature. It was a further 10 years of miscommunication, comments on her lack of facial expression, masking her identity in the workplace, and disassociated anxiety and panic attacks, before she was exposed to the female profile of Autism and was able to identify her differences.
Following a formal Autism diagnosis, further research drew her attention to the unsettling statistics surrounding the lack of employment opportunities and many inequalities present for Neurodivergent people in the workplace. She went on to co-found Send it to Alex - a Virtual Support Worker Service, to respond to the support requirements of neurodivergent people in the UK and help them to maintain and thrive in employment. Send it to Alex places the individual at the heart of their strategy, to create an inclusive, diverse, and highly-skilled workforce.
Send it to Alex is a Certified BCorp, and in addition to their core service are conducting an R&D project on how Neurodivergent employees are impacted by the use of HR Tech. They have been awarded three grants for their research and development project from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Ultd, and OxLEP which is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).