Celebrating Disability Blog

Lived Experience Alone Does Not Create Inclusion in the Workplace

In my recent conversation with Joanne Lockwood on The Equality Edit, this came through clearly. We spoke about the value of personal experience, the emotional labour that often sits behind it, and the gap that still exists between hearing someone’s story and knowing what to do differently as a result. Again and again, the conversation came back to the same point. Awareness matters, but awareness without action changes very little.

Why lived experience feels powerful, and where it falls short

There was a time when I was very clear that I did not want to centre myself in my work. When I started Celebrating Disability, the focus was inclusion, not my personal story. Over time, that shifted. Not because the purpose changed, but because I realised that lived experience is often what makes inclusion in the workplace tangible for other people. It helps people understand the impact of barriers in a way that theory never quite can.

But there is a limit to what lived experience can do on its own.

Sharing personal experience can create empathy. It does not automatically create action.

What it does not do is help a business understand how to change its processes, how to support its managers, or how to embed inclusion into day to day working practices. It does not tell someone how to respond in a real conversation, or what to do when a situation becomes complex.

That is where the gap sits. Lived experience can open the door, but it does not build the structure that needs to come after.

Moving from awareness to action in inclusion in the workplace

Organisations start with the best intentions; they invest in awareness, bringing in speakers and creating space for people to share lived experiences. People listen, they reflect, and they often leave with a stronger emotional understanding.

But inclusion in the workplace cannot rely on people simply caring more. It has to help people act differently.

That means translating feedback into something practical. It means asking what this looks like in recruitment, in performance management, in team communication, and in leadership behaviour.

This is where many organisations struggle with inclusion in the workplace, particularly when moving from awareness into action.

Without that step, inclusion remains something that is talked about rather than something that is consistently experienced.

Why fear stops people from engaging

One of the biggest barriers to inclusion in the workplace is not resistance. It is fear. People are worried about getting it wrong. They worry about using the wrong language, asking the wrong question, or causing offence without meaning to.

Fear does not create safer environments. It creates silence.

This shows up in everyday ways. Managers delay conversations they know they need to have. Colleagues avoid asking questions that might actually improve understanding. Decisions are pushed down the line because people do not feel confident enough to act.

The impact is simple. Support is delayed. Barriers remain. And disabled people are left to navigate those gaps on their own.

The role of line managers in making inclusion real

This is where inclusion in the workplace either succeeds or quietly falls apart. Not at senior leadership level, and not in policy documents, but at line manager level.

Many managers want to do the right thing. The challenge is to ensure the right tools are in place to turn theory into practice. As a result, enabling line managers to have confidence when engaging in conversations about adjustments and support, because clear guidance has been provided.

Inclusion does not fail because people do not care. It fails because people do not feel confident.

Building manager capability is critical. Not just awareness, but practical confidence in real situations.

We support organisations to develop line manager confidence and skills through comprehensive, tailored training.

The emotional labour behind inclusion

There is another layer to this that is often overlooked. For many disabled people, inclusion in the workplace is not an occasional topic. It is something that is navigated every day.

That includes explaining needs, managing other people’s reactions, advocating for support and staying composed in situations that can be frustrating or exhausting.

Inclusion often comes with invisible labour that organisations do not measure.

Even in organisations that are trying to improve, this can take a significant amount of energy. There is often an unspoken expectation that individuals will educate others while also doing their job.

That expectation is rarely acknowledged, but it is very real.

Why inclusion needs to be built, not requested

Too often, inclusion in the workplace is treated as something that happens in response to a request. Someone speaks up, explains their situation, and then support is considered.

By that point, the responsibility has already been placed on the individual.

Inclusion should not depend on someone having to ask for it every time.

A more effective approach is to build inclusion into the culture from the start. That means thinking ahead about how people work, how flexibility is approached, and how conversations are handled.

Leadership, culture and everyday behaviour

Leadership plays a critical role in shaping inclusion in the workplace. Leaders influence what is prioritised, how people behave and what is considered acceptable.

Inclusion is not driven by statements. It is driven by behaviour.

If leaders demonstrate openness, accountability and a willingness to learn, that creates space for others to do the same. If they avoid difficult conversations or focus only on outputs, that also filters through the organisation.

Inclusion is not about doing something completely different

There is a common assumption that inclusion in the workplace requires a completely different way of working. In reality, it often builds on what people already know how to do.

People already adapt to different personalities, support their friends in different ways and respond to individual preferences in their personal lives.

Inclusion is not a new skill. It is a consistent application of what people already know.

The challenge is bringing that into the workplace in a way that is intentional and sustainable.

Why perfection is not the goal

There is often pressure to get inclusion in the workplace right all the time. That is not realistic. People will make mistakes. They will have days where they do not respond in the best way.

What matters is not perfection. It is accountability.

Awareness, ownership and a willingness to improve are far more important than getting everything right the first time. That is what builds trust over time.

Turning lived experience into meaningful change

Lived experience remains a vital part of inclusion in the workplace. It brings clarity, honesty and perspective. It helps people understand the real impact of barriers in a way that theory cannot.

But it cannot carry the full weight of change on its own.

For organisations, the focus needs to shift towards building capability. That includes supporting managers, embedding inclusive practices into everyday work, and ensuring that people know how to act on what they have learned.

A few practical questions can help highlight where the gaps might be:

  • Do managers feel confident having conversations about support and adjustments
  • Does inclusion in the workplace show up in daily behaviour, or mainly in policy documents?
  • Are disabled people expected to carry the responsibility for driving change?
  • Has the organisation invested in implementation, not only awareness?
  • Do people know what to do after hearing lived experience?

Inclusion in the workplace becomes meaningful when insight leads to action.

Lived experience can start the conversation, but it is what happens next that determines whether anything actually changes.

What to do next

If these questions are difficult to answer, that is where the risk sits.

Inclusion in the workplace does not improve on its own. It moves when action is taken.

If there is already a sense that things are not quite working, or that managers are unsure how to respond in real situations, now is the time to address it.

Send us an email to explore what needs to change and how to move forward with clarity.

Why Reasonable Adjustment Conversations Aren’t Happening

The Gap Between Reasonable Adjustments Policy and Practice

Over the past year, I have worked with multiple organisations investing in training for line managers responsible for reasonable adjustment conversations. A common frustration emerges: the policies exist, but implementation is inconsistent. This is not a knowledge deficit. It is a capability deficit. Knowing that reasonable adjustments are a legal duty under the Equality Act does not automatically equip someone to manage a nuanced conversation about fluctuating needs, performance expectations, or team impact. Policy creates structure. It does not create fluency. Without rehearsal, managers default to caution.

Line Managers Avoid Reasonable Adjustment Conversations

Line managers understand that there are real consequences attached to adjustment conversations. They are aware of potential grievances, tribunal risk, and reputational damage. That awareness shapes behaviour. And internal calculation often happens.

If I say the wrong thing, this could escalate. If I agree to something unreasonable, I expose the organisation. If I open this conversation, I may not know how to resolve it.

Avoidance feels safer in the short term. Silence feels like risk management. But silence is not neutral. For disabled employees, hesitation can communicate doubt. Delay can communicate disbelief. A postponed reasonable adjustment conversation can feel like rejection, even where there is no malicious intent. The harm does not require hostility. It only requires inaction.

Misunderstanding What “Reasonable” Means

Another recurring issue is confusion around what reasonable adjustments involve and what the term “reasonable” actually protects. Many managers overestimate cost and underestimate flexibility. They assume complexity before asking a single question. In practice, most reasonable adjustments are practical and low cost. Reasonableness is built around proportionality and this safeguards organisations from disproportionate burden while protecting disabled people from systemic disadvantage. When managers genuinely understand this balance, fear reduces significantly. Clarity reduces defensiveness and increases action.

Why Reasonable Adjustments Training Must Go Beyond Awareness

Delivering a single disability inclusion workshop does not create behavioural change. If line managers are expected to lead reasonable adjustment conversations confidently, they need repeated opportunities to practise and reflect. That means structured case studies, safe rehearsal environments, and space to explore what happens when conversations feel uncomfortable. It means analysing examples of what worked well and where small language shifts changed outcomes.

This is why our Reasonable Adjustments Training at Celebrating Disability is designed around application, not just awareness. I explored this further in my recent Thinking Out Loud episode on the silence around reasonable adjustments, where I unpack why compliance without confidence creates organisational risk.

Organisational Priorities Shape Reasonable Adjustment Conversations

There is a deeper structural issue that is often overlooked. What is genuinely prioritised inside the organisation?

If speed, productivity, and immovable deadlines are consistently rewarded above all else, managers receive a clear signal. Inclusion becomes secondary. Reasonable adjustment conversations become optional.

But…

If inclusion is the priority, leadership must communicate that clearly and operationalise it. That may involve shifting deadlines, adjusting team expectations, or giving managers explicit permission to slow down in order to support someone properly.

Avoiding reasonable adjustment conversations does not eliminate risk. It compounds it. Silence increases the likelihood of grievance and tribunal. It suppresses disclosure rates. It undermines trust. Over time, it signals to disabled employees that belonging is conditional. That is not a policy issue. That is a culture issue. And culture is shaped by behaviour, not documentation.

From Silence to Skilled Reasonable Adjustment Conversations

The barrier is rarely intent. It is capability. It is clarity. It is organisational permission. The most effective line managers are not necessarily the most naturally confident personalities. They are the ones given structured opportunities to practise, ask questions, and prioritise inclusion without fear of penalty. If reasonable adjustment conversations are not happening in your workplace, the question may not be whether managers are compliant. It may be whether they feel equipped.

Why Measuring Disability Inclusion Matters and How to Start

Without disability inclusion metrics, disability inclusion often remains invisible. It sits in HR folders, policy documents, or one off initiatives rather than becoming part of how the organisation understands performance, risk, and culture. When inclusion is not measured, it is harder to protect, harder to fund, and easier to deprioritise.

Measurement is not about surveillance or bureaucracy. It is about understanding where barriers exist, whether support is effective, and what needs to change. For organisations that are already doing something, measurement is the point where activity becomes strategy.

Measurement is the bridge between intention and impact

When disability inclusion is not measured, the same patterns tend to appear.

Leaders assume inclusion is working, without evidence. Training has happened, policies exist, so it feels like progress. But without outcome data, leaders cannot see whether disabled people are actually experiencing timely support, psychological safety, or equal opportunity. This creates a false sense of confidence and prevents meaningful improvement.

Barriers remain hidden and normalised. Delays in reasonable adjustments, inconsistent manager responses, inaccessible systems, and informal workarounds often go unrecorded. When barriers are not measured, they become part of everyday working life rather than problems to solve. Over time, this increases frustration, fatigue, and disengagement among disabled staff.

Disability inclusion becomes fragile. When budgets tighten or priorities shift, work that cannot demonstrate impact is often the first to be questioned. Without data, disability inclusion is easier to frame as optional rather than essential. Measurement protects the work by showing why it matters.

Trust and disclosure stagnate. Disabled people are less likely to disclose when previous disclosures have led to little change. Low disclosure then limits the quality of data available, creating a cycle where leaders say they cannot act because they do not have enough information. Measurement done well breaks that cycle by showing that disclosure leads to action.

From a business perspective, this matters because unmeasured barriers affect productivity, retention, engagement, and reputation. These costs rarely appear labelled as disability related, but they show up elsewhere in the data.

What measuring disability inclusion actually means

Measuring disability inclusion is not just about headcount. It is about understanding experience, outcomes, and systems.

Effective measurement looks at whether reasonable adjustments are delivered consistently and on time, whether managers feel confident supporting disabled staff, whether disabled people feel safe disclosing and asking for support, whether disabled staff stay, progress, and thrive at similar rates to non disabled staff, and where organisational systems create friction or delay.

Celebrating Disability delivers training sessions that support line managers to understand their responsibilities and obligations towards disabled people in terms of reasonable adjustments and equality at work, to find out more, click here to see our sessions.

One widely used approach is an inclusion index, which brings together responses on belonging, safety, fairness, and support into a single score that can be tracked over time. This allows organisations to see patterns, compare teams or functions, and assess whether change efforts are working.

There is growing professional demand for practical ways to measure inclusion, not just talk about it. That shift reflects a broader recognition that inclusion needs to be managed with the same seriousness as other organisational priorities.

The business cost of not measuring disability inclusion

Organisations that do not measure disability inclusion often experience the same operational issues, even if they are not labelled as inclusion problems.

Retention risk increases. When adjustments are delayed or inconsistent, disabled employees are more likely to reduce hours, disengage, or leave. Replacement costs, lost knowledge, and disruption to teams all carry a financial impact.

Manager time is wasted. Without clear processes and data, managers often rely on informal advice, repeated conversations, or trial and error. Measurement highlights where managers need better systems or guidance, reducing inefficiency.

Legal and reputational risk rises. Untracked delays or inconsistent decisions around adjustments increase the likelihood of grievances or disputes. Measurement provides early warning signs before issues escalate.

Inclusion work lacks credibility. When disability inclusion cannot demonstrate outcomes, it is harder to secure long term investment. Measurement gives leaders confidence that resources are being used effectively.

Research consistently shows that workplace adjustments support productivity and retention. In Business Disability Forum’s Great Big Workplace Adjustments Survey, many disabled employees reported that adjustments helped them stay in work and perform better. That link between support and performance is exactly what measurement makes visible.

Five practical ways to start measuring disability inclusion

These steps are designed for organisations that already have some disability inclusion activity in place and want to embed measurement into their strategy.

1. Define outcomes, not activities

Start by being clear about what success looks like.

Examples of outcomes include adjustments being implemented within agreed timeframes, managers feeling confident having conversations about disability and access, disabled staff reporting higher levels of psychological safety, disclosure rates increasing because trust exists, and disabled staff retention improving.

Once outcomes are clear, identify simple indicators that show progress. For example, measure average time from adjustment request to implementation rather than counting how many requests were made.

2. Build trust in disability data

Disability data is sensitive. People will only share it if they understand why it is collected and how it will be used.

Key foundations include clear communication about purpose and impact, inclusive categories with a free text option, separation of disability data from performance management, and transparency about who can access the data and why.

If trust is missing, data quality will be poor and measurement will fail.

3. Use reasonable adjustments as your first dashboard

If a reasonable adjustments process exists, you already have a strong starting point.

Useful measures include time from request to decision, time from decision to implementation, percentage of requests implemented fully or partially, common reasons for delay, and repeat or escalated requests.

These metrics quickly reveal where systems support inclusion and where they create barriers.

4. Measure lived experience, not just numbers

Headcount does not show whether inclusion is working.

Add lived experience measures such as short pulse surveys on belonging, safety, and support, manager confidence checks on adjustments and conversations, and structured listening sessions reported as themes.

This data shows whether policies translate into everyday reality.

5. Turn measurement into action

Measurement only builds trust if it leads to change.

Embed disability inclusion metrics into business rhythm by assigning a senior owner for inclusion data, reviewing key indicators regularly, reporting alongside other people metrics, and sharing what has changed because of the data.

When people see action, confidence in the process grows.

Common questions leaders ask

Why measure disability inclusion when we already have policies?
Policies show intent. Measurement shows impact. Without data, it is impossible to know whether policies are improving lived experience or simply existing on paper.

Will measurement slow things down?
Clear metrics often speed things up. They focus effort on the most significant barriers and reduce wasted time on initiatives that do not deliver results.

Inclusion includes feelings, but patterns are measurable. Combining quantitative indicators with qualitative insight provides a robust picture of what is happening and why.

Moving Beyond Awareness. What Inclusion Really Means for Disabled People at Work

Recently I had a conversation as part of a history and storytelling project. It brought me back to what inclusion feels like in daily life. Some things I shared were personal. Others were about how society responds to disabled people. All of them highlighted the same issue. Awareness and adjustments alone do not create belonging. For workplaces, this is where the work truly begins.

Acceptance is not the same as inclusion

People often say their workplace is welcoming to disabled people, but what they usually mean is that they are not openly discriminatory. Acceptance is passive. Inclusion is active. This difference sits at the heart of strong disability inclusion strategies for workplaces.

During the conversation I was struck by how often spaces appear friendly but are still full of barriers. These barriers are not created on purpose. They appear because nobody thought about disabled people before decisions were made. It is the same in many workplaces. A team may get on well. Meetings may feel positive. However, the design of the organisation still assumes non-disabled norms.

This is where understanding the difference between access and inclusion becomes essential. You can watch more about that here in our animated video on the difference between accessibility and inclusion.

Inclusion means anticipating needs before someone arrives. It means designing environments, expectations and behaviours that already work for disabled people. It means applying workplace accessibility beyond compliance, rather than reacting when someone raises a concern.

Awareness cannot remove barriers on its own

Awareness training helps colleagues understand disability, but disabled people still face daily barriers that awareness alone will never remove. This is why workplace accessibility beyond compliance must sit alongside training.

In everyday life, barriers show up in small but significant ways. Accessing services. Travelling. Navigating attitudes. The barriers come from how environments are designed and how people behave, not from disability itself.

Workplaces are no different. A company may offer disability awareness sessions yet still have inaccessible digital systems, unclear procedures, nervous managers or rigid processes. Without structural change, awareness becomes information rather than transformation. To move forward, practical ways to support disabled employees need to be built into the entire organisation.

The emotional load that inclusion should lighten, not increase

One reflection from my conversation was about the amount of thinking that happens before I even start my working day. Planning support. Managing travel. Preparing for attitudes. Navigating fatigue. All of this sits alongside being a professional and a leader.

Disabled colleagues often carry the same emotional load. Re-explaining needs. Working around systems that were never designed with them in mind. Dealing with assumptions and attitudes. This is the invisible emotional effort that sits behind every working day.

Strong disability inclusion strategies for workplaces should reduce this load, not add to it. Inclusion is not only about adjustments. It is about removing the repeated labour disabled people are often expected to carry on their own.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission explains what organisations are legally required to offer as reasonable adjustments. It is important guidance, but it represents the floor, not the ceiling. Inclusion grows when workplaces use this as a starting point rather than the end of the journey.

Physical disability has slipped out of focus

Across the EDI sector there has been a noticeable shift. Mental health and neurodiversity receive growing attention. That awareness is important but it has created an unintended gap. Physical disability, particularly for people who need higher levels of support or mobility aids, often receives far less focus in workplace plans.

This leads to strategies that assume invisible disabilities but overlook physical access. It leads to adjustments that suit some colleagues but do not address the needs of others. It leads to networks and initiatives that unintentionally marginalise physically disabled people.

To move forward, organisations need to include physical disability clearly and confidently within their plans. This is a key part of workplace accessibility beyond compliance and should sit at the centre of any balanced EDI approach.

Everyday inclusion also depends on empathy

I remembered moments during my conversation when a simple act of support could have removed a barrier but someone chose not to help. These moments are not dramatic but they tell you everything about culture. They show whether people notice or whether they wait to be asked.

The same thing happens in workplaces. A colleague hesitates to offer help. Someone ignores a small request. A manager avoids starting a conversation. These individual actions shape culture far more than any policy.

Inclusion grows through tiny moments. A willingness to notice, act and make space for someone without needing permission. That is what workplace accessibility beyond compliance looks like in daily behaviour.

Compliance is the starting line, not the finish line

It is easy to assume that if a workplace complies with the Equality Act, it must be inclusive. Compliance matters. It protects rights. But it does not guarantee belonging. An organisation can meet every legal requirement and still be inaccessible in practice.

Policies can exist without meaningful follow through. Managers can feel unsure about applying adjustments. Systems can remain rigid. Culture can override good intentions. This is why disability inclusion strategies for workplaces must go further than legal standards.

If legislation disappeared tomorrow, would your organisation still be inclusive?

That question helps us understand whether inclusion is cultural or simply contractual.

Resilience should not be a requirement

Disabled people often appear resilient because they have no choice. Over time, constantly pushing against barriers wears people down. In a truly inclusive workplace, resilience is not a requirement for participation. People should not need extraordinary strength simply to access ordinary opportunities.

A thoughtful moment. What this means for everyday practice

As EDI professionals and leaders, there is a real opportunity to shift from awareness to action. These reflections can support that journey.

• Bring physical disability to the centre of your strategies.
• Review processes to identify where disabled staff carry repeated labour.
• Build empathy into daily behaviour and expectations.
• Look at your organisation through a prevention lens, not an adjustment lens.
• Value disabled colleagues as partners in shaping solutions.
• Treat inclusion as culture, not compliance.
• Consider lived experience as evidence.
• Design with disabled people in mind from the beginning.

Inclusion becomes real when disabled people step into a workplace and already feel thought of. Not accommodated after the fact. Not managed as an exception. Thought of from the very start.

That is when awareness begins to transform into belonging.

Ensuring Your Disability Inclusion Efforts Are A Success

Many of these strategies have been very successful.  These have included:

  • Centralising the funding pot for reasonable adjustments. Enabling managers to concentrate on what is needed for a disabled employee to achieve. Instead of considering how this will fit into their budget.
  • Continuous line manager training for new recruits.
  • EIAs completed for every new process or policy introduced.  Limiting the risk of inequitability.

The one thing that always works is when a company develops its culture from the top down. Continuously demonstrating it will not accept anything but the standards it sets for true inclusion and equality.

Unfortunately, there’s no quick fix although there are some quick wins. So, in this blog, we will explore how a culture which centres disability inclusion is built and sustained. 

Understanding your why

I know I bang on about this all the time. But this is because it’s so important. If you don’t understand why you’re doing something, you won’t prioritise it. It will quickly go to the bottom of the to-do list. Consider the Eisenhower Matrix:

Without defining the reasons why, disability inclusion will quickly fall to the not important, not urgent category. 

The good news is that coming up with your why is not something you need to do or even should do alone. Involving your workplace, your ERGs or disability networks, utilising those annual staff surveys, and asking for general feedback are always in which you can start to gather ideas that will develop your strategy.  

You may not be surprised to hear that Celebrating Disability can help with this as well. 

Our guest talks give opportunities for participants to share their feedback in anonymous way so that they always remain psychologically safe and in control of those thoughts and ideas. At the same time, learning something new and solution focused to implement into their workplace. 

We have also worked in the past with organisations to develop content with the ERGs, disability networks and people that are immediately affected by the outcome.

However you do it, remembering the following is key:

  • People will only share if they understand why you are asking. I’ve mentioned twice now about psychological safety. And this is because this is key. If people don’t feel safe to answer the question, they won’t engage. It is imperative that it is articulated why you are asking, what you were going to do with the information and how people will be fed back to.
  • Understand what you were asking. Define what you want to know the answer to. If it’s more than one thing, that’s okay but try and separate them out. The more you can communicate what you want to know, the more people can help you answer the question. Open questions can work but it’s still important to understand what the aim of asking that question is.
  • It is not a once and done. But rather a rinse and repeat.  Meaning you don’t just ask a question once and then stick with the solution for evermore. You use that for your jumping off point but you can refine and revisit regularly.

Keep in mind that they may be many different reasons for why disability inclusion is a good idea. This can include the morality case for disability inclusion but it may also include the business and commercial case. There’s nothing wrong with this. 

Personally, I spent years avoiding the commercial case for disability inclusion. Over the last couple of years, I’ve come to realise that there’s nothing wrong with that: we as disabled people want to have a positive impact on society in the economy and one does not work without the other!

Assessing where you are

Now that you understand your why, it’s time to assess where you are against where you want to be. This may include a gap analysis assessment or desktop audit. This can be done internally or externally.  

You may even want to do an access audit. This is looking at your physical environment to understand where the barriers are to achieving your why from a built environment perspective.

Your gap analysis assessment (or desktop audit) should include:

  • Opportunity for key stakeholders to share their views.
  • Surveys for employees to share their opinions and views.
  • An analysis of how your policies, processes, templates, guidelines and any other documents enable or restrict how you will achieve your goal.

Done well and thoroughly, this assessment will give you a priority list to start.

Obviously, depending on where you are at the end of your gap analysis assessment (desktop audit), this will determine your next steps. So from now on, I will talk about some general strategies that will ensure disability inclusion is a systemic priority for your business.

Reasonable adjustments

Adjustments really are the key to success. The process for these can be as arduous or as simple as you would like to make them.

A personal tail

I am a member of a business mentoring group. This is a small business where they focus on enabling business owners to succeed. The ethos of inclusion comes naturally to this business. However, the implementation isn’t always obvious. What is clear is their commitment in making me feel valued and included in every activity that I take part in. The business makes this easy by having open conversations with me about what I need and how it can be implemented. This is an example of how it can be simple.

Depending on the size of the business, adjustments are easier or harder to get sign off on. But this is a process driven decision. If processes are open and fluid, it does not need to be difficult. An adjustment for a disabled person is the difference between successfully being productive as well as being part of the workplace culture and not. It’s a simple as that.

Systems for adjustments

Disabled employees that they choose to stay in a certain department/certain role because they have a good line manager. A line manager who displays empathy and compassion. Can competently navigate reasonable adjustments and understands that they are the key to success.

This is brilliant. It shows that there are people within businesses that really embrace the notion of equitable opportunities for everybody. However, we need to ensure a disabled person does not have to stay in a department because they worry about the alternative. Disabled employees should feel confident to progress, try different things, explore different roles without the fear of lack of support from their new line manager and team.

This is why centralising the system is so important. Not only centralising the system so that a line manager can have that conversation but can easily access what they need to support their employee. But training those line managers to understand what their responsibilities are and how to carry those out.

Being brave to have the conversation

Reasonable adjustments and engaging in conversations about support is imperative to ensuring this opportunity is achieved. We know that talking about disability is uncomfortable for people. We don’t want to say the wrong thing, we don’t know what to do with the answer, we don’t know what to ask. But it is so important that we become comfortable with the discomfort. Because if a line manager does not take the responsibility and the initiative to ask these questions, the disabled employee cannot demonstrate what they are capable of to the full extent.

There is no magic step or magic question to enabling everything to be shared at once. And there can’t possibly be.  Because the more a disabled person learns about their role, and learns about their line manager and their team, the more they will feel confident and able to share what they need.

It is about enabling an opportunity for that person to feel safe, secure and informed about what they need and how they may need it. It’s trial and error.

Your recruitment process

A few years ago, recruitment was very popular and very much a priority for businesses and organisations we were working with. For obvious reasons.

  1. A disabled candidate must be able to access the process in order to be considered.
  2. A disabled candidate must be able to feel a sense of belonging and safety when engaging and being introduced to your workplace.

However, over the last couple of years, this hasn’t been much of a priority in the services we have provided. Maybe because people are on top of this, maybe because there’s something new for people to think about. But it is a priority, it must be thought of.

Ensuring a disabled candidate can access the process.

This means being able to physically and cognitively engage in this process. From completing the application form, identifying with the job description and requesting support. It also means ensuring recruiters are enabling fair opportunities to demonstrate ability and be equally considered in the shortlisting process. We have created a fictional case study to consider the barriers that disabled people face in the recruitment process. This case study is available to download by clicking here.

Onboarding

We often consider the onboarding process as an opportunity to assess a new recruit over a period of time. We use this time to ensure they can achieve the outcomes of the role that are set out for them. We introduce them to the business, the ways of working, the specific team and the expectations that are set upon them.

This also must be an opportunity for the disabled employee to showcase ability. The only way they can showcase their ability is if they have the right support in place. 

Continuous development and training

Returning to the notion this is not a one time fix. Instead, a long-term systemic culture change, continuous development is imperative to upholding the standard. This will be in the form of:

  • Training in key areas of inclusion with key stakeholders. These can include line managers, HR, team members during their onboarding.
  • Information events.
  • Resources.
  • E-learning. If created and distributed responsibly.

What now

There’s no shortcut to getting it right. Building an inclusive workplace culture takes commitment, curiosity and a willingness to learn from experience. When reasonable adjustments are made easily and confidently, and when everyone understands their role in creating equality, inclusion stops being a tick-box exercise. It becomes who the organisation is. That’s what real disability confidence looks like; a culture that keeps evolving, because the people in it keep learning.

Creating Equitable Opportunities for Disabled Employees

Recruitment is often the first place businesses focus when thinking about disability inclusion. And it matters. If disabled people are not included in recruitment processes, they may never get the chance to bring their skills into the workplace. But recruitment is only one step. True inclusion is about what happens next. It is about how day to day practices, adjustments, and culture either enable or stop disabled people from achieving.

For leaders, EDI professionals, and L&D heads, the challenge is to recognise what stops disabled people from achieving at work, and to remove those barriers so businesses can focus on ensuring disabled people achieve. That is how inclusion becomes business as usual.

What Do We Mean by “Barriers”?

Through the social model of disability, disability is not created by a person’s impairment but by the barriers around them. In the workplace, barriers are anything that prevent disabled people from achieving their potential, contributing fully, or being recognised for their skills on equal terms.

Barriers are not always obvious. They are often cultural, systemic, or attitudinal. This is why senior leaders play such a critical role in challenging and reshaping them.

For further context on legal duties, see the Equality Act 2010: guidance.

Common Workplace Barriers

1. Attitudinal barriers

  • Assumptions about what a disabled person can or cannot do.
  • Talking over colleagues or avoiding conversations altogether.
  • Overprotection that unintentionally limits growth.

2. Systemic barriers

  • Rigid policies around working hours or performance measures.
  • Processes that rely on one way of doing things, such as all staff meetings without breaks or inaccessible software.
  • Adjustment processes that are complex or slow, discouraging colleagues from requesting support.

3. Environmental barriers

  • Office layouts that make navigation difficult.
  • Meeting rooms or breakout spaces without hearing support or quiet zones.
  • Emergency procedures that overlook disabled colleagues.

4. Communication barriers

  • Information shared only verbally or only in writing.
  • Lack of accessible formats such as captions, large print, or plain language.
  • Digital platforms or intranets that do not meet accessibility standards.

Why Leaders Need to Focus on Ensuring Disabled People Achieve

Removing barriers is not simply a matter of compliance or doing the right thing. It is a strategic decision with clear business outcomes. If barriers remain in place, they stop disabled people from achieving and prevent businesses from creating equitable opportunities for disabled employees.

1. Retention and engagement
When disabled colleagues face barriers, they may feel undervalued or disengaged. This drives turnover and results in the loss of skilled staff, along with the hidden costs of recruitment and retraining. A workplace that creates equitable opportunities for disabled employees fosters loyalty and long term engagement.

2. Productivity and performance
Workplace barriers mean employees are forced to work around obstacles instead of focusing on outcomes. This lowers productivity and increases frustration. Inclusive adjustments such as flexible working or accessible technology ensure disabled people achieve on equal terms. They also improve performance across entire teams.

3. Leadership confidence
When managers do not know how to talk about adjustments, they may avoid the conversation. This creates uncertainty for both parties and undermines trust. Leaders who are equipped with practical tools can initiate conversations that unlock potential. This ensures disabled people achieve while strengthening team cohesion.

4. Commercial resilience
Ignoring barriers restricts the pool of talent, ideas, and innovation. Inclusive businesses build resilience and agility by ensuring disabled employees contribute fully to growth. Creating equitable opportunities for disabled employees is not just socially responsible, it is commercially smart.

5. Brand and reputation
Reputation matters. Businesses that fail to support disabled colleagues risk being seen as exclusive or outdated. On the other hand, those that demonstrate a commitment to ensuring disabled people achieve send a clear signal of values to customers, clients, and investors. This strengthens their competitive edge.

Shifting from Barriers to Opportunities

The good news is that barriers can be dismantled. For leadership, this begins with three commitments:

  1. Listen and learn – Create safe spaces for disabled colleagues to share their experiences. Feedback must be heard, acted upon, and built into business processes.
  2. Act with agility – Treat adjustments as an enabler, not an exception. Quick, proactive responses show commitment to creating equitable opportunities.
  3. Embed inclusion – Inclusion cannot be an add on. It needs to be part of everyday systems, policies, and behaviours. This is how disabled people achieve consistently.

Moving Forward

Every business will face different challenges. All can benefit from reflecting on one central question:

“What might be unintentionally stopping disabled people from achieving in this business?”

For some, the answer may lie in leadership behaviours. For others, it may be hidden in processes, systems, or the physical environment. Whatever the case, when businesses act with intent, three outcomes follow:

  • Disabled colleagues feel valued, supported, and able to thrive.
  • Managers gain confidence in leading inclusive teams.
  • Businesses create equitable opportunities for disabled employees, and reap the rewards of a culture where everyone can achieve.

Recruitment opens the door. But it is the day to day experience of work, the adjustments, the culture, the conversations, that ensures disabled people achieve, progress, and thrive.

Ready to take the next step?

Download our free resource: How to Consider Proactive Adjustments. This practical guide helps leaders and managers anticipate barriers, focus on role outcomes, and create equitable opportunities for disabled employees.

Why Is Inclusive Recruitment Important? Creating Inclusive Recruitment Processes That Work

For many disabled applicants, that is not just a one-off experience. It is a typical pattern.

If you are wondering why inclusive recruitment is essential, this is one reason. Inclusive recruitment processes are about far more than ticking a box. They are about creating an environment where every applicant, particularly disabled applicants, can show their strengths without unnecessary barriers getting in the way.

The recruitment process sends strong signals about who belongs in an organisation. Before the job offer, before the interview, even before the application begins, disabled applicants are already forming an impression. They are asking: Is this a workplace where I can be myself? Will I be supported to succeed?

If the process is clunky, confusing, or silent on access, the answer often feels like “no.”

Why Inclusive Recruitment Still Gets Overlooked

Despite growing awareness of disability inclusion, recruitment remains one of the least adapted parts of many organisations.  An article in the Financial Times reports that disabled jobseekers in the UK submit 60% more applications than non-disabled people, yet only about half receive an interview.  Energy might go into inclusive language or unconscious bias training, but often, the structure of the hiring process remains the same. This is a missed opportunity.

Disabled applicants bring enormous value to organisations. But that value gets lost if barriers are not removed from the very start. Inclusion needs to begin with the first interaction. Otherwise, disabled applicants will never get through the door, let alone thrive.

When hiring managers and HR teams understand how barriers are created, and more importantly, how to remove them, they can design a recruitment experience that works for everyone.

Itching for more on this? Our blog on Recruiting Disabled People into the Workplace dives deeper into the why and how.

Designing Processes That Empower

Inclusive recruitment begins with intention. When organisations take the time to consider accessibility from the outset, disabled applicants experience a smoother, more empowering journey.

  1. Start with the job description. Does it make clear that access needs are welcomed? Is there a named contact for queries? These small details matter. They show openness. They build trust.
  2. Next, look at the platform. When application forms work seamlessly with assistive technology like screen readers, disabled applicants can complete them independently. That functionality signals that the organisation has thought about access beyond legal minimums. It shows care. It encourages more applications from disabled people.
  3. And when disabled applicants are invited to share their access needs proactively, it reduces pressure. Instead of waiting for a candidate to disclose, inclusive recruiters take the lead. They clarify that adjustments are part of the process, not a problem to solve.

This is not about doing something “extra.” It is about doing what is right and smart from the start.

A Culture of Trust and Openness

Disclosure is a profoundly personal decision. Many disabled applicants fear that sharing their access needs will be seen as a disadvantage. That fear isn’t unfounded; it stems from previous experiences where revealing information resulted in silence, miscommunication, or being overlooked for opportunities.

 Inclusive recruitment creates a culture of trust. When disabled applicants see that their needs will be respected and acted on, they are far more likely to disclose them. This leads to honest conversations, smoother interview experiences, and a better chance of finding the right fit for everyone.

Onboarding is also part of this. When organisations ask about reasonable adjustments before day one, disabled employees arrive prepared. They do not have to spend the first few weeks trying to catch up or explain what should have been in place already. They can start strong, with the tools and environment they need to succeed.

This sets the tone for long-term engagement. It tells disabled employees: you belong here.

A Practical Example: Accessibility in Action

Imagine this scenario. An organisation revamps its entire careers page to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These changes are not just cosmetic. The team rethinks structure, layout, colour contrast, and compatibility with screen readers.

As a result, more disabled applicants apply. But more than that, all applicants have a better experience. The site is easier to use, more straightforward to navigate, and more welcoming overall.

While this is a fictional example, it reflects the real-world impact that accessible design can have across recruitment. Accessibility is not about catering to a few. It is about improving the experience for everyone.

The Business Case: Inclusion Drives Results

Sometimes, inclusion is dismissed as “nice to have.” But the evidence tells a different story. Inclusive recruitment makes business sense.

Research by McKinsey shows that companies in the top quartile for diversity are up to 35% more likely to outperform their competitors. The Boston Consulting Group found that companies with diverse leadership teams generate 19% higher revenue due to innovation. You can read the full report in a blog here.

Diverse teams are not just more representative. They are more adaptable, creative, and in touch with the real world.

Disabled people bring valuable lived experience, creative problem-solving, and resilience to the table. But inaccessible hiring practices prevent many from even being considered.

Organisations prioritising accessibility in recruitment tap into a wider talent pool, improve their reputation, and build stronger teams.

And when disabled applicants feel confident that an employer takes access seriously, they are more likely to apply, stay, and grow within the organisation.

Want more on handling conversations around adjustments? You might like our blog on Reasonable Adjustments in the Workplace.

Steps to Make Recruitment More Inclusive Now

You do not need to overhaul your entire hiring process overnight. But small, intentional changes make a difference. Here are some practical steps:

  • Write job descriptions that focus on outcomes, not rigid tasks.
  • Include a clear statement that access requirements are welcomed at every stage.
  • Ensure your recruitment software works with screen readers and keyboard navigation.
  • Offer multiple ways to participate in interviews, such as written formats, video responses, or extended time.
  • Train hiring managers to understand and embrace reasonable adjustments.
  • Collect feedback from disabled applicants and act on it.

Inclusive recruitment is an ongoing practice. The most inclusive organisations treat every hiring opportunity as a chance to improve. They listen to disabled applicants, implement what they learn, and keep the door open to feedback.

If you are ready to embed inclusion more deeply into your culture, our blog on Embedding Disability Inclusion Initiatives is a great next step.

Final Thought

Recruitment is not just about filling roles. It is about shaping culture.

When disabled applicants experience an inclusive process, it sends a powerful message: you matter here. Not because of a policy. But because the organisation has worked to create space for every voice.

That is where inclusion starts. And where transformation begins.

Next Step: How Inclusive Are Your Own Recruitment Processes?

If you are wondering what your organisation could be doing differently, reflect on the processes described in this blog. Are job descriptions accessible? Are adjustments discussed openly? Can disabled applicants navigate your recruitment journey with confidence?

Use this blog as a benchmark. Compare your current approach against these examples of diversity and inclusion recruitment best practices. What already works well, and where are the gaps?

In a couple of weeks, we will add a self-check tool to support this reflection with even more clarity. Until then, take a moment to review your own process and identify the changes that will move inclusion forward.

Disability Awareness Week Celebrations Are Over: What Next?

Every year, we observe Disability Awareness Day (26th July), Disability History Month (14th November to 20thDecember), Disability Pride Month (throughout July), Inclusion Week (15th to 21st September), and International Day of Persons with Disabilities (3rd December). How are we all reflecting on what these events truly represent? And thus, are we reducing the risk of these being just for the sake of events?

When planning your workplace disability awareness day, it can be difficult to consider what to do. We work with many organisations that, amongst their disability awareness month celebrations, have many events. These can include talks, lunches, and network inaugurations. We have been part of many of these events! And they are always great. The most successful are the ones where the workplace considers why it is celebrating the day, month, or week.

Engagement numbers depend on the time taken to consider and plan the event. I’ve hosted events with over 100 participants, and stayed to answer questions after the event had ended.

I have also been a guest speaker at events where 15 people attended, and there were no questions.

Celebrating Disability talks often explore topics in sufficient detail, sometimes eliminating the need for additional questions. When the invitation is too close to the event, participants do not have time to consider what they will learn.

Understanding what you aim to achieve.

Understanding what you want to achieve from your disability awareness day event is key to its success. It’s a good opportunity to champion and celebrate disability. It can be a quick win if you’re unsure what to do that specific month. However, when you truly take the time to consider the benefits of having this event, you can come up with something that reflects what you are trying to articulate to participants.

The most successful events can be hosted during a disability awareness month or outside of that time. The key to success is always when the person hosting the event understands what their goal is. When they understand this, this can translate into a higher turnout on the day. Along with higher levels of engagement and participation throughout the event. Lastly, actionable takeaways that can be implemented back into the workplace.

When hosting a talk with an external guest speaker, most organisations invite the whole workforce. This means people from every department and a diverse range of roles will be attending. This is great because it outlines and demonstrates that disability inclusion is everyone’s business.  In order to engage such a diverse range of people and interests, it is important to develop content that is relevant to everyone. This keeps all participants engaged and ensures the ability to action ideas that are raised within the talk.

Ensure disability awareness remains a priority

Disability awareness days, disability awareness months, and disability awareness weeks are great for having a central focus to bring everything together. However, if a disability awareness event is only put on because the month has arrived, this will not achieve any disability inclusion goals.

Disability awareness and inclusion in the workplace must remain a priority 365 days; 12 months a year. Disabled people are not going anywhere. The easiest way to articulate this to your participants, members of your disability network, your disabled customers, and your workforce is to have this central event as part of a wider focus and effort to develop your disability inclusive culture.

For example, if you are hosting a disability awareness event to celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, this could be the centre point of everything you have been working towards so far that year. It can be an opportunity to celebrate your successes and to understand from your workforce what work still needs to be done.

When my associates and I are invited into a workplace as guest speakers, we use interactive tools such as Slido. This enables us to understand the engagement levels of the participants as we deliver the talk. It also enables the organisation we are being hosted by to understand how engaged its workforce is and what they think of its inclusive culture.

Doing this also helps you align your goals with what is genuinely needed. It can help you set them for the year ahead and support you when presenting that all-important business case to HR, EDI, or learning and development for your budget for the upcoming year.

Using your disability awareness month event to articulate how much you value disabled employees and colleagues

If you are starting your disability inclusion journey or just setting up your first disability inclusion network, this is a great opportunity to articulate how much you value disabled employees and colleagues.  It will be imperative that you continue this narrative by hosting events and implementing solutions for a disability inclusive workplace. You can do this by actioning suggested solutions that come from your disability guest speaker and the participants who are attending your events.

Tips to consider when planning your event for disability awareness week

To end, here is a summary of the four tips I would give when planning your disability awareness week event. These should enable you to host a successful event that will engage participants now and into the future.

Consider your reasons for the event.

It’s fine to put on an event for the sake of an event. If you take the time to consider your reasons for putting on the event and what you plan to achieve as a result, this can mean a higher turnout, more engagement, and an opportunity to work towards some of your pre-existing goals.

Align pre-existing goals.

Many of our clients who come to us for disability awareness day events are leaders of the disability networks or ERGs within their companies. Often, these networks have pre-existing goals that they are trying to achieve within the year. Considering what you want to achieve with your disability awareness month event will help you match and achieve some of these annual goals.

Book in advance.

So many organisations call Celebrating Disability weeks before they want to do the event. This necessitates a rush job. It does not give enough time for any real planning to ensure goals can be met. Invitations have to be rushed, meaning that many employees do not get a chance to attend because their calendars are already booked up.

The further in advance you can book the event, the more time we will have to work with you to put on an event that truly hits.

Research the theme.

Some disability awareness months have campaigns that focus on a specific theme. This is especially true of Disability History Month, which has a different theme each year.

Research this theme to see if it coincides with your goals. If you haven’t already set them, this could be a good opportunity for some inspiration.

What’s next? Let’s plan it.

Disability awareness months can be powerful starting points, but inclusion doesn’t stop when the calendar page turns. The best way to keep the momentum going is by setting intentional, achievable goals.

Head to our resources section to download tools to help shape your next steps. Or get in touch if you’d like to talk through your next event, training, or strategy. Planning now means you’ll be ready and impactful when the time comes.

How To Write A Training Session That Makes An Impact

How many times have you attended or hosted a training session and walked away unable to articulate the outcome?

If your answer is at least once, you are not alone. It’s a common problem. Training is often developed without a clear purpose. It’s not good enough to say “disability awareness training”. You need to know what the training is for, why now, and who it’s being delivered to. This is where writing an effective training session plan starts, by asking three key questions:

  1. What am I trying to achieve? 
  2. What are people going to leave the session knowing more about? 
  3. What are they going to do because of the session?

I heard somebody liken not setting goals to being lost at sea in a thick fog. And this is so accurate. If you don’t set goals, how do you know where you’re going? How do you know when you’ve got there? How do you know what worked and what didn’t?

The same principles need to be applied when planning your effective training session whether you decide that your training session will be about invisible disabilities in the workplace, supporting disabled employees to achieve, how to support disability disclosure at work, or anything else. First, consider why you are doing it. Follow this with what needs to happen for us to know that we’ve achieved, then consider the barriers presently. If you answer these, it will help you move further towards making your disability inclusion training content impactful.

If you prioritise what I have said above, you are well on your way to an impactful and effective training session. However, this is not the only step. For the remainder of this blog, I will discuss five imperative steps that should be followed to ensure the biggest impact.

  1. Understand the problem.
  2. Interaction, engagement, accessibility and inclusion.
  3. Articulate the purpose of the disability inclusion training session.
  4. Enable opportunity for reflection, accountability and action.
  5. Follow up and provide resources.

Understand the problem.

If you’re wondering how to write a training session, understanding the problem is key.  This is intertwined mainly with setting the right goals. 

Understanding the problem is not something you need to do alone. It’s about engaging, communicating, and collaborating with your best resources: your employees and colleagues. Listen to what they’re saying, analyse the data from your feedback surveys or employee surveys, and talk to your employee resource groups, specifically your disability and neurodiversity ERGs, to gather feedback.

Then, take the information to your supplier (if your disability inclusion training session is delivered externally). At Celebrating Disability, we make it our standard process to ask questions that can help you define the problem and what you were trying to achieve. In this blog, you can read more about what you can do to understand the problem and how we can help you figure that out.

Engagement, interaction, accessibility and inclusion.

An effective training session doesn’t just talk at people. It involves them. Every trainer has a process and strategy for delivering training sessions. At Celebrating Disability, we deliver training sessions in the way that we would engage with the content ourselves. As a person with a fairly short attention span, I must be actively involved, so our training sessions are completely interactive.

Aside from the reasons I’ve already mentioned, the more interactive your training session is, the better you can gauge how engaged the delegates are with your content. This allows the trainer to adjust their style anytime they notice that the delegates are not connecting. Flexibility like this is not possible when you are simply presenting without allowing time for interaction.

Disability inclusion is still somewhat of a taboo subject. Therefore, the more you can encourage conversation, the better. Delegates can hear from each other that they are not alone in their discomfort when talking about disability. That shared experience will, in itself, provide confidence.

If you do not consider accessibility and inclusion when designing and delivering a training session, engagement and interaction will be a moot point—people won’t be able to engage and interact! This blog outlines how you can ensure that you have provided inclusive and accessible methods of engagement for your delegates or participants.

Articulate the purpose of the disability inclusion training session.

If your session is opt-in, you must present a compelling reason why your employees should attend. This is key to hosting an effective training session that will last. Bearing in mind, they don’t know what you know at this stage: they don’t know that this will help them solve their problems at work. They will just think that this is another thing you are asking them to do on top of their already overloaded priority list.

When we work with organisations, we prove to them time and time again that a little marketing can go a long way to ensuring engagement and participation. Those who don’t believe us soon change their minds when they see the results!

We provide benchmarking data, which also supports employees who have not yet attended to see the benefits, as their colleagues are raving about our sessions!

Even if your training sessions are mandatory, it’s important to provide incentives to help people understand what the session is about. This way, when they enter the session, they will already have the correct mindset needed to engage, challenge themselves, and ultimately learn new skills.

I have seen several methods used for internal communication of training sessions and talks. Including:

  • Providing session overviews and training outcomes,
  • Personalised invitation in inboxes,
  • Adoption of internal communication systems. For example, centralised televisions, posters, and internal newsletters.

Enable opportunity for reflection, accountability and action.

One of the biggest reasons companies miss out on the impact and longevity of the training session they commission is that they don’t do the work to ensure accountability. Therefore, further action is not implemented.

You can spend thousands and thousands of pounds investing in an all-singing, all-dancing training company or e-learning platform that can give you the most innovative engagement tools, the snazziest-looking platform, and the most aesthetically designed slide deck. Still, if there is no follow-up, it will all be wasted!

There are a few other top tips to consider for accountability, reflection and action:

  • Make sure your training provider understands your goals, the current barriers, and what you expect delegates to do, think, and feel after the training session.
  • Carve out time in the training session for delegates to reflect on what they have learnt and how they will implement it.
  • Encourage delegates to set pledges. These can be personal or those for which they will be held accountable.
  • Provide resources for your delegates and line managers. These resources should recap what delegates have learnt and provide an overview for line managers on what delegates have learnt and should, therefore, be able to implement. This will let line managers know how to provide space for the delegates to implement their learning.
  • Consider whether the learning outcomes you set for the training session are achievable. For example, does the delegate have the capacity within their role to achieve what they are going to learn in the training session? Also, be mindful of whether the learning outcomes are achievable in the training timeframe. For example, if it’s a two-hour training session and there are 10 learning outcomes, this may not be realistic. Your training provider should guide you through this.

Follow up and provide resources.

To ensure the optimum return on investment, make the feedback process a lasting action.

Ask for feedback from not only the delegates in the room but also their line managers, their colleagues, and other disabled people around the organisation. You can do this by asking the question outright. You can also set specific KPIs that align with the learning objectives of that training session.

Organisations must go beyond attendance numbers to make training effective in the long term and start measuring outcomes. Research from Accenture’s “Getting to Equal” report shows that companies that embed disability inclusion across all levels – including training, leadership, and culture – see higher innovation, increased productivity, and greater employee retention.

Understand your benchmark and then set milestones.

This will be especially helpful for planning when specific targets should be met. If they do not meet the targets, reassess to find out what has broken along the branch:

  • Does the training need to be redelivered because you have a new cohort of staff?
  • Is it because the resource is not being allocated to staff to enable them to implement the learning outcomes?
  • Is it because you’re learning outcomes were outside the remit of the roles of the delegates?
  • Were the targets set too high in the first place?
  • Or is it something else? 

The important thing is, you need the data to start identifying the problem.

Provide continued resources for all employees who happen to be involved, whether they are line managers, leadership employees, HR, team members, suppliers, or any other stakeholders who impact the strategy being achieved.

If your inclusion training isn’t changing behaviour or culture, it’s time to rethink the approach.
We work with organisations to embed disability inclusion across the full training journey—from goal-setting to measurable outcomes. Check out our case studies for examples of how we worked with other companies to achieve their goals. When you’re ready, let’s talk about what you can achieve. 

Disability History –  Past, Present & Future

Introduction

Did you know that Celebrating Disability is based on the legacy of the disability movement and disability rights in the UK from the early 80s onwards? This bloke explores the history of disability rights and how we all have a responsibility and power to ensure that it continues into the future.

Whether you’re reading this blog as a disabled person or an ally of disability inclusion, our history has helped shape the world we see today. A world where removing barriers for disabled people opens up more opportunity, creativity, and fairness for everyone.

This blog will cover a brief history of modern disability activism from the 1980s to today, looking at the evolving landscape of work, policy, and inclusion. We’ll also examine how activism has adapted under a government whose recent policies threaten to strip disabled people of both independence and opportunity, and what businesses can do to stand in solidarity and support.

A brief history of disability activism in the UK (1980–now)

Understanding the fight for disability rights and activism in the UK means recognising how hard-won progress was—and how employment, independence, and equality have been at the heart of the movement. Here are some key moments that shaped workplace rights and inclusion for disabled people:

1980s – The rise of grassroots activism

Activists formed powerful movements like the British Council of Disabled People (BCODP) and Direct Action Network (DAN), fighting for rights, access, and opportunity, especially around independent living and work.

1981 – The International Year of Disabled Persons

The UN declared 1981 the International Year of Disabled Persons, sparking activism in the UK. This moment shifted the conversation away from charity and toward the social model of disability: one that focuses on removing barriers in society, including in employment.

1995 – The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)

The DDA marked the first legislation outlawing disability discrimination in employment, education, and services. It had its flaws, but it laid essential groundwork for future progress.

2006 – Equality 2025 Advisory Body

This initiative aimed to embed lived experience in policy making. Though short-lived, it was a step toward greater accountability and representation at the national level. Looking back from 2025, it was a nice idea while it lasted!

2010 – The Equality Act

Replacing the DDA, the Equality Act expanded protections and introduced a legal duty for employers to provide reasonable adjustments, which was a pivotal change for workplace accessibility.

2013 – PIP replaces DLA

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) was introduced to support disabled people with daily living and mobility, crucial elements of maintaining employment. While designed to empower independence, its complex assessment process often has the opposite effect (which we’ll speak a bit more on later).

2020s – The fight continues

The government set targets to close the disability employment gap, yet simultaneously cut or underfunded vital support like Access to Work. This contradiction continues to spark criticism and activism from the disabled community.

This isn’t an exhaustive history, by any means – many key wins came from local campaigns and grassroots work, and are still continuing now. But each milestone reflects how the fight for equal work opportunities is ongoing and rooted in lived experience

What drove change

The disability rights movement didn’t wait for permission to exist. It was fuelled by the power of collective voice. Disabled people organised, protested, and demanded recognition through advocacy and direct action.

Movements like The Disabled People’s Direct Action Network (DAN) brought visibility through civil disobedience, while community groups and charities helped shift public perception. What unified these efforts was a commitment to equity, autonomy, and dignity, especially in the workplace.

Lived experience has always been central to this progress. Policy that works is policy shaped by the people it’s meant to serve. And real inclusion stems from listening and understanding, not assumptions.

Empowerment in a challenging time

Now, here’s where it gets a bit dark.

In a bid to “get Britain working”, the UK government has proposed almost £5 billion in cuts to Personal Independence Payments (also known as PIP). Their logic is that by raising the points required to qualify for these payments, more people with lower support needs will be forced into work, therefore creating a better economy.

What disabled people and organisations like ours are saying is that PIP is simply a tool to help disabled people with their independence, as the name suggests. PIP covers daily living assistance. Whilst the uses of PIP vary from person to person depending on need, the financial support can aid with expenses such as taxis and public transport, food and energy bills, and disability related expenses. Many people who receive PIP can work and maintain a higher quality of life due to these payments, and without them, they may not be able to work. This is why it is so important to consider lived experience in these decisions, which feel absent from these rulings.

According to the government’s own numbers, the PIP fraud rate between 2023 and 2024 was a tiny 0.4%, compared to 12.9% for Universal Credit. PIP is so hard to claim even before these extreme measures, that only a small percentage of those who need it are qualifying anyway. With these cuts, it will become even harder for people who can (in the government’s own words) use a microwave or can’t wash their hair unaided to receive the support they need.

There has been a huge backlash both from the public and other MPs to these cuts, and it’s hard to not feel like we’re going a bit backwards as a society. But it’s important to remember that activism is still alive through means like online protests – our founder Esi attended one of these recently where people wrote their local MP and sent off complaints about the recent cuts simultaneously to send their message and be seen.

Double standards

There’s a clear contradiction at play.

On one hand, the government is applying pressure on disabled people to “get back to work.” On the other, it’s slashing the very programmes that help make that possible, from Access to Work delays and underfunding to employment support schemes that are slowly disappearing.

By raising barriers to financial support while cutting back on employment pathways, the message isn’t that disabled people are welcome at work, it’s that they’re expected to figure it out alone. And for many, without transport, personal assistance, or accessible workplaces, that expectation is unrealistic, or downright unattainable.

What businesses are up against

While awareness of disability inclusion is growing, many businesses, particularly smaller ones, are still navigating how to implement it meaningfully. And often, the challenge isn’t a lack of willingness, but a lack of resources and clarity.

One ongoing barrier is the assumption that “reasonable adjustments” are expensive or complicated. In reality, many are low or no-cost – flexible working hours, clear communication formats, accessible onboarding – and they often benefit the wider team, not just disabled employees.

That said, some adjustments, such as assistive technology, specialist software, or physical adaptations, can present a cost barrier, especially for small or early-stage businesses. Rather than financial incentives for hiring disabled people (which can feel tokenistic or patronising), support should focus on making adjustments more accessible for employers of all sizes. Think offsetting the cost of tech, simplifying grant access, or speeding up support systems like Access to Work.

At a time when disabled people are facing more and more systemic obstacles, from cuts to PIP and other vital supports, it’s essential that workplaces do more than just open the door. They must create environments where disabled people can succeed, thrive, and belong.

That’s where we come in. At Celebrating Disability, we support businesses through our consultancy and disability inclusion training sessions that are tailored to your business, no matter where you’re at in your journey. Whether you’re already disability confident or are taking the first steps, we provide training that builds confidence, breaks down barriers, and creates lasting change. From making your recruitment process more accessible to understanding how to implement meaningful adjustments, we’re here to help!

So, where do we go from here?

If we want lasting change, businesses and policymakers must do more than just acknowledge barriers. They need to actively dismantle them.

This starts with listening to disabled people, not just during Disability History Month or in response to pressure, but as an embedded, ongoing practice. We should be included in the conversation even when it isn’t disability-centric, because we exist 24/7. Inclusive design, education, and long-term investment in accessibility are not bonuses – they’re essential.

We must also build on the progress of previous generations. The gains made since the 1980s were hard-won, and they show us what’s possible when community, activism, and action meet. Today’s businesses have an opportunity to be part of that legacy by choosing sustainable, authentic inclusion over reactive compliance.

Ready to be part of the change?

Whether you’re an individual looking to deepen your understanding or a business ready to take meaningful action, now is the time to invest in real inclusion. At Celebrating Disability, we support organisations of all sizes to embed disability inclusion into workplace culture – not as a box-ticking exercise, but as a catalyst for long-term impact.

👉 Reasonable Adjustments in the Workplace – Understand what reasonable adjustments really mean and how they benefit everyone.
👉 Asking About Disability on a Form – Rethink how you ask the question to foster trust, safety, and inclusion.
👉 Book a free discovery call to explore how we can support your journey.

Progress doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when we choose it.

Let’s Talk About Inclusion

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Celebrating Disability
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