Disability Equality gives us a way of articulating the voice of disabled people, but equality and accountability are part of an organisation's long-term vision. Therefore leadership teams need to ensure organisations develop alternative working practice that challenge the legitimacy gap. |
While the recruitment of people who are visibly different is good, those who acquire impairments at work are estimated at 86% of the disabled workforce. If 400, 000 professionals leave employment every year, that is a huge cost to business.
As John West-Burnham wrote: “Our judgements about almost all social interactions, organisations and communities depend upon our perceptions of the relationships involved’ and ‘If the prevailing orthodoxy is [discriminatory] … on an equitable basis then the role of leadership has to be to question and challenge that orthodoxy. The more deeply embedded the orthodoxy the greater the need for transformational leaders”. (West-Burnham, 2009, p. 12)
We cannot say whether discrimination or impairment is a causal factor, but we can state that the barriers facing professionals at interviews probably persist throughout their career, and therefore impact those who become disabled mid- or late-career. Therefore, institutional discrimination almost certainly plays a large part in the absence of disabled professionals at senior and board levels. Viewed thus, matters of diversity and adjustments are also important in the progression of skilled, talented and experienced individuals.
A disabled professional’s CV will possibly show shorter than average spans in multiple roles within different organisations. This eclectic mix of knowledge and skills has become the norm. The disabled professional will also have gained rich experience within and beyond employment that needs to be recognised as strategic, extensive and maybe overachieving. This makes their suitability for promotion obvious, yet they rarely achieve it, preferring to leave instead. As we saw in the discussion about trust, assumptions about the lack of excellence within the disabled population need to be challenged and extended to the diversity of roles available across the board.
The power of representation
• As the Disability Power 100 list shows, increasing the representation of disabled people as achievers is ever more important to counter misrepresentation and replace outdated ideas with the real experience of positive relationships.
• It is therefore critical to “recognise, celebrate and promote” the contribution of disabled individuals as equally capable, creative and productive workers in their field who bring knowledge, expertise and craftsmanship to their workplace. While helping to shift attitudes and expectations, visibility challenges culture.
the end of a tale but the beginning of a journey
Together, the four posts sections spell out an alternative understanding of working with disabled professionals. Starting with language, workplace culture can change, and the transformation depends on us, as employers, to follow the lead of the disabled community* those who have actively challenged the attack on their human rights.
Together they provide an extended terminology that will help employers to talk with more certainty about:
• the disabled worker the person, their skills, experience, qualifications and particular knowledge
• disablism the barriers, negative attitudes and working practices faced by disabled people but not by their non-disabled colleagues within organisations, sectors or professions (eg fear, lack of awareness, avoidance, micro-aggression, stairs, complex or incomplete policies)
• ableism – the misrepresentation or silencing in the documents, communications and wider storytelling of organisations
• impairment, condition, difference or functioning – private information, the disclosure of which is a disabled individual’s choice to disclose: the same is true for their identity as a disabled person
• inclusive practice an ongoing process of adjusting equitably to diversity.
It is all very good news, as addressing the prejudice, discrimination and inequality disabled workers face
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