Finding disability-friendly employers

Employers who want disabled people to work for them can sign up to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. It used to be called the Two Ticks scheme.

Disability Confident Employers commit to:

• challenging attitudes towards disability
• increasing understanding of disability
• removing barriers to disabled people and those with long-term health conditions
• ensuring that disabled people have opportunities to fulfil their potential

Disability Confident employer scheme (GOV.UK)

Getting an interview with the Disability Confident scheme

Disability Confident employers will ask you if you are disabled when you apply for the job.

They offer interviews to disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for a job. This does not mean that all disabled people will get an interview for every job.

Look for these symbols on job adverts.

Only Level 3 ‘leader’ organisations have been assessed by someone independent to see if they are meeting their commitments to disabled people.

Committed (Level 1)

Self-assessed

Employer (Level 2)

Self-assessed

Leader (Level 3)

Independently assessed

Some employers are disability-friendly even if they do not say they are in the job advert.

There are ways to find out what a job might be like before you apply.

Ask the employer

Sometimes there are contact details on the job advert. It is OK to contact this person to ask them anything about the job before you apply.

You can ask if the workplace is accessible. For example, you can ask:

• Are there induction loops in meeting spaces?
• Is there step-free access to the whole building?
• Are there accessible toilets?

Find out if a workplace is accessible

You can ask for adjustments to apply for the job or attend an interview, such as:

• for more time to do an interview task
• for a British Sign Language interpreter to come to your interview
• to attend the interview online instead of in person

Ask for interview adjustments

If you are not ready to tell the hiring manager you are disabled, there are other ways to find out what it is like to work there.

If it is a big organisation, you could ask about their policies on hiring disabled people. Look on the website for contact details. You can ask to speak to someone:

• who works in the HR department
• who works in an equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) role
• from the disabled staff network

These people should be able to answer your questions about what it is like to work there as a disabled person.

It might be helpful to tell the employer you are disabled when you apply. But you do not have to.

Disclosing disability to an employer

Glassdoor

Glassdoor is a website where employees leave reviews about what it is like to work for employers. They talk about their own experiences of things like pay, the workload and the culture.

People sometimes leave reviews when they feel angry. So, treat them like other online reviews. One bad experience does not mean they are a bad employer.

Look up the employer on Glassdoor

Look for connections on LinkedIn

If you use LinkedIn, search for the employer. See if you have any connections there. You could ask them.

LinkedIn

The Equality Act 2010 means that employers must make reasonable adjustments for disabled people.

If you find some things harder at work because you are disabled, reasonable adjustments could be:

• flexible working
• adapted equipment, such as chairs, keyboards or voice recognition software
• taxis to work
• British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters at work

There is no set definition of what is ‘reasonable’. It depends on the job, the employer and your condition.

Access to Work grants can pay for specialist assessments. An assessment can help to work out what is reasonable in your situation.

Reasonable adjustments at work

If your employer does not agree to reasonable adjustments, this could be disability discrimination at work.

Disability discrimination at work

If you wish to complain about a Disability Confident employer, you can get support.

Raise an issue with a Disability Confident employer (GOV.UK)