Disability Inclusion & Anti-ableism for the Workplace

Throughout this playbook we use person-first language for example “person with a disability”, “person with a hearing impairment” when speaking as the Powered By Diversity. Many people prefer identity-first language “autistic person”, “blind person”. It’s very important to ask for the terms your colleagues and potential colleagues prefer.

We also subscribe to the social model of disability and throughout this playbook we also use social model associated language for example "a disabled person".

What is a disability?

You’re disabled under the Equality Act 2010 if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities. You can find guidance on what’s taken into account in determining disability from HM Government.

A mental health condition is considered a disability if it has a long-term effect on your normal day-to-day activity. Your condition is ‘long term’ if it lasts, or is likely to last, 12 months. ‘Normal day-to-day activity’ is defined as something you do regularly on a normal day. This includes things like using a computer, working set times or interacting with people. You can read more about when a mental health condition becomes a disability at Gov.uk

2. What is “Able-Bodied” (or non-disabled) Privilege?

Privilege has got a lot to do with the fact that what’s normal, every-day, irregular or unremarkable to a person without a disability, is not so to a person with disabilities. Some of the things we take for granted are struggles or barriers for disabled people.

Our privilege becomes harmful when we assume others have the same privileges as us. When we do this, the extra effort necessary for those with disabilities to overcome obstacles presented by just those things we take for granted is not taken into account.

This assumption that we are all equal, places people without privilege at an automatic disadvantage from the start.

REFLECTION

Redefining 'normal'

Think about how you think of 'normal' in your workplace: making a coffee, finding your way around the building, using the toilet, speaking to your colleagues and customers over the phone, reading a memo, typing an email...

Now think about how you might do all of those 'normal' things with a disability. Now think of them with a different disability. The definition of 'normal' becomes vastly different.

Non-disabled people have been socialised to believe that certain traits, characteristics and functions are ‘normal’ - but think about what that assumption makes everything and everyone else outside of that boundary.

A human trait is that because we can, we automatically presume that everyone else is able to as well. Things we take for granted can be barriers for people with disabilities. Without meaning any direct harm, we can wrongly presume that everyone has the same opportunities, abilities and access.

Everyone can go online, use a keyboard and computer. Everyone can use the internet to do research. Everyone can access and read books. Everyone can get in their car or on public transport to attend a meeting or interview. Everyone can use a mobile to have a telephone interview. Everyone can find and get access to your floor in your building to come and meet you. Everyone can represent their skills and abilities adequately through a traditional interview process or learning experience.

You might be able to; not everyone can.

The simple every-day advantages people have due to not being limited by physical or mental impairments is non-disabled privilege.

We may not think of it as privilege because to us it’s just going about “normal” life. But to a person with disabilities it is very much an advantage - it’s a privilege that they simply do not have.

If society were equal, we would all be equally privileged, but let’s assume for the moment that this will take a while. What can you do about your privilege? The answer is that you can become conscious of it.

3. Conscious Privilege

To be so hyper aware of people looking at you that you constantly police your own body to ensure that able bodied people feel more comfortable. It is physically and emotionally tiring. It is soul crushing. At its most basic level it isn’t fair.
Elizabeth Wright, Disability activist, Paralympic Medalist, Powered By Diversity Collective

REFLECTION

Consider these examples of non-disabled privilege from The Invisible Crutch:

I can be assured that assumptions about my mental capabilities will not be made based on my disability status.
I can swear, dress sloppily, or even be in a bad mood without people attributing it to my disability.
I can do well in challenging situations without being told what an inspiration I must be to other people.
I can agree to attend a meeting and not have to think about whether I will be able to get there using public transport, or if I’ll be able to get to the room inside the building.
I can watch TV and movies, buy posters, postcards, books, greeting cards, toys and magazines featuring people of the same physical status as me.
I can take a job without having someone suspecting I got my job because of my disability.
If I am fired, not given a raise, or not hired, I do not have to question whether it had anything to do with my appearing physically incompetent.
Do you benefit from any of these privileges?
Did you think of them as privileges before?
Will you think of them as privileges now?

Conscious privilege is simply being aware that some of the things which we take for granted place us at a starting advantage over others. It’s understanding that not everybody has the same privileges as us, and being consciously aware of this as we go about everyday life.

Cultivating a mindset of conscious privilege means letting go of assumptions, actively seeking education, familiarising yourself with the disadvantages that people with disabilities face in everyday life, and being much more aware of disability in our daily dealings.

REFLECTION

Have a read of the passage below from a member of the Powered By Diversity Collective:

I was an estate agent in the Docklands area of London and I had arranged a day of viewings with a young banker from Canary Wharf. I told him to meet me at our office and we’d go from there.

When Davy arrived he was in a wheelchair. His body was small and his facial features were different. He had limited mobility in the fingers of one hand which operated the chair via a joystick, and little to no mobility in the rest of his body, including his neck - his head was supported by a rest.

I was terrified of the situation I was in, the fact that I was completely unprepared for how to deal with it, and I’m ashamed to say, I was terrified of Davy himself.

The day I spent with him changed my perception of disability forever. Davy was the same age as me, intelligent, funny, irreverent and unbelievably patient. That day, I saw the world through his eyes for the first time. After travelling 3 stops past our destination on the DLR (an elevated tram in London) in search of a lift that actually worked, I had to call a taxi company and we had to wait 40 minutes for a cab that could accommodate Davy’s chair and had a ramp to allow him to enter the vehicle.

We were late for every single one of our appointments and all of the apartments we looked at that day either had corridors that were impossibly small in relation to Davy’s chair, bathrooms that he could never maneuver in, or random, seemingly unnecessary steps from one room to the next. Every doorway suddenly appeared far too narrow, every room too pokey, after all that hassle to get to each dwelling, not a single one was suitable.

It just brought to sharp focus how completely unsuitable the world was for such a brilliant person and it felt so unnecessarily unfair.

In this passage can you recognise how familiarity can aid conscious privilege?

How can your organisation become familiar with many different disabilities?

4. Unconscious Bias

As human beings, we are all biased to some extent. Mental shortcuts and assumptions help us to make sense of our world. It’s when these biases are applied to people that we can run into problems. Biases are preferences. Unconscious biases are simply those biases we are not consciously aware of, and as a result of this, we often act on them unintentionally.

Our biases act as social filters, which our brains use to make immediate assessments and judgements about the world around us. It is a perfectly natural human process to develop mental shortcuts, they help us to act quickly and learn. But unconscious biases can get in the way when it comes to opening up to diversity. If you have unconsciously categorised certain groups of people into negative buckets, it can be hard to overcome - because you are probably not consciously aware of them.

Assessing your own biases is the first step to addressing them. Until you become aware of your unconscious biases, you will continue to risk unconsciously acting on them.

Take an unconscious bias test for disability

Our brains are programmed to protect us from the unfamiliar; our society has evolved much faster than our human brains, and as a result, we’ve still got a bit of primitive brain within us. Our brains think they’re helping us to fight for our survival by protecting us from groups who are “not like us”. The more we familiarise ourselves with groups and people outside of the groups we have been exposed to growing up, the less we will unconsciously avoid them.

Analyse your fear

What’s behind it?
Is it a fear of being humiliated? Saying or doing the wrong thing?
Is it a fear of offending somebody or hurting someone’s feelings unintentionally?
Is the fear centred on yourself - or others?

Let go of the fear, and lose bias too

Familiarising yourself with the formerly unfamiliar is one of the most effective ways of removing bias, If you have only ever seen disability represented a certain way - on TV, in movies or books - you may have built up a perception of the group as a whole, without ever having spent any time with any members of the group in real life. The more you can step out of your comfort zone and familiarise yourself with people of different ability and disability, the more your experiences of those individuals will begin to override your previous perceptions.

REFLECTION

How can you as an individual spend more time with people with disabilities?
Where can you look and who can you ask for help?
How can you ensure your organisation as a whole becomes more aware of their own unconscious biases around disability

WATCH: How to Outsmart Your Own Unconscious Bias Valerie Alexander

READ: What you need to know about Unconscious Bias Powered By Diversity

5. Disability Inclusive behaviour

Educate yourself

It can feel frustrating when activist groups are constantly telling you there’s a problem - then seemingly refusing you to educate you when you show willingness to learn more.

In her talk disability and work: Let’s stop wasting talent, Hannah Barham-Brown says that whilst people mean well, having to explain your disability and the struggles of every disabled person is exhausting.

In the age of information, it’s easier than ever before to educate yourself - and education takes time.

Relying on every disabled person to educate you isn’t fair, especially in light of the fact that it’s non-disabled privilege that has built the obstacles for them in the first place.

Ask questions specific to that individual

When the time is right, ask questions about the individual that you can only learn from them - and with the intention of improving things for them and being a better colleague, boss or ally.

Find out their thoughts, feelings and opinions on things like how working life could be made better for them. Their preference of terms and words. How they prefer to be described - if at all. It’s advisable to ask these in private, possibly all at once - and not all the time.

Avoid asking somebody to speak on behalf of all people with their disability - or all people with all disabilities. They might have some suggestions for how things could be improved for them and others similar to them, but they won’t know about everyone - nor should they feel they have to.

Think about things from their perspective

Make a huge effort to think about life from other perspectives, often.

Whilst it can feel well-meaning to ask after someone’s wellbeing, if you were constantly asked about one specific thing all the time, it would become tiresome very quickly.

Having to have the same conversation over and over again is exhausting. It also centres the conversation on the person’s disability.

Whilst ignoring it entirely isn’t the solution, talking about it all the time isn’t either. Don’t push your staff with disabilities to be poster-people for your organisation.

A huge part of inclusion is feeling valued for who you are and what you bring

Avoid labelling people with disabilities as inspirations just for doing what everyone else does. If they are doing inspirational work, that’s great, but constantly looking at someone as an inspiration for doing a day’s work isn’t inclusion.

Stella Young talks brilliantly about the feelings of people with disabilities on the topic of “disability porn”; objectifying people with disabilities for the inspiration of people without disabilities.

She talks of people approaching her to tell her she was an inspiration, just for existing. She describes it as

“society having such low expectations of people with disabilities that they are congratulated for getting out of bed in the morning and remembering their own name”.

This isn’t inclusion.

Inclusion is a person with a disability being there not to talk about a disability - or give an inspiration to others, just to do their job like everyone else.

Beware of benevolent bias

An example of benevolent bias would be not including a person with a disability in a challenging project, because you worry about the impact on them.

Would it tire them out? Would that unenlightened client offend them? Can they handle the pressure?

Whilst the intention of benevolent bias is well meaning, it is the very definition of exclusion.

Just like everyone else

You will (and should) always be aware of a person’s disability in order to think about the world through their lens, however your ultimate aim should be to treat that person equitably (fairly).

That might mean changing your language, your office layout, your ways of working and your extracurricular team activities - it might even mean changing certain members of your client-base - but this is true inclusion.

If it didn’t work for everyone it was not inclusive to begin with.

Finding a way that works for everyone, where everyone is able to feel like a contributing, fulfilled and valued part of the team is true inclusion.

More on this:

Let’s change the way we think about disability Joel Dembe

The Truth About Growing Up Disabled Dylan Alcott

Disability Confident Training | ENEI

6. Anti-ableism & Allyship

Ableism encompasses every aspect of the disabled lived experience. Whether it is from accessibility issues, social structures, or attitudes towards disability, disabled people are confronted on a daily basis by a world that doesn’t want to include them
Elizabeth Wright, Disability activist, Paralympic Medalist, Powered By Diversity Collective

Ableism is the systematic oppression of people with disabilities.

What does this mean?

Oppression occurs:

when individuals are systematically subjected to political, economic, cultural, or social degradation because they belong to a certain social group—this results from structures of domination and subordination and, correspondingly, ideologies of superiority and inferiority.

It could be argued that oppression is easier to see clearly when looking at it through the lens of the disabled community. The superior/ inferior dynamic between non-disabled and disabled people is readily assumed - and is widely accepted in society. This is the “systematic” part of systematic oppression.

When whole societies’ political and economic structures are built off the back of an assumption of superiority over a certain group of people, this is systematic oppression. When an entire society is set-up with an oppressive belief underpinning it (that people with disabilities are inferior), oppression becomes part of everyday life.

Anti-ableism begins with educating yourself about different disabilities and their individual obstacles. The middle of the journey is developing a consciousness of every individual around you and their own individual obstacles. It ends with seeing the world through their eyes and using your privilege to act when you see obstacles or oppression presented.

Only ally when you are ready

Calling yourself an ally when you are not yet educated and your ego is still in the driving seat can cause more harm than good. Infiltrating a protected group when you don’t yet recognise your own privilege can break trust very quickly and case harm.

Until you are truly ready to be an ally, choose instead to say you are learning and you are listening.

Your ego may take a battering, put it in a box

Being a true ally means completely removing your ego from the situation. Being an ally means being able to stand back and look at your own privilege objectively, without defence or excuse. It means admitting to yourself your past ignorances, oversights and plain errors.

This exercise can be an ego batterer, you will know you have completed this step when you can admit and explain your own privilege and when hearing about it doesn’t cause a rise in your defenses.

Putting your hand up to be an ally also means you will make some mistakes, it’s almost inevitable when you’re speaking as a person who has never experienced the situation first hand.

When you are made aware of mistakes it can be humiliating and painful, especially if you had the very best of intentions, but wrestle that ego back into the box, apologise and learn and keep going - don’t give up.

You will need to stick your neck out

Making a stand can feel counterintuitive when society pits us against each other in a struggle for jobs, promotions - and survival, but being a true ally means taking that personal risk and standing up when you see injustice or oppression.

Standing up is not just for extroverts or those who are great at public speaking. Standing up just means acting. Doing something instead of noticing it and not doing anything - or hoping somebody else will.

Standing up can be done as privately and kindly as you like, it doesn’t have to cause a scene or draw any unnecessary attention. Standing up can even be done in writing or over the phone - the point is that allyship is doing something - not just thinking something.

Allyship can’t be about you

You may have heard the term 'centering' in reference to allies or activism.

Centering is hearing someone speak about their situation, plight, pain, struggle or oppression and bringing the conversation back to yourself. Whether likening their situation to one of your own, or becoming defensive and rejecting the conversation as not applicable to you, to talking about your own pain and hurt upon hearing the tale.

These are all examples of centering and it’s a very clear sign that you are not yet ready for allyship. Allyship is about not just hearing but listening with the intention of understanding.

It’s not about your feelings and how hurt or saddened you are, it's about them and what you can do to help.

WATCH

Our fight for disability rights and why we're not done yet Judith Heumann

Mainstreaming Disability Dylan Alcott

READ

Everyday Ableism: what is it and how to stop doing it Elizabeth Wright

Everyday Ableism and How We Can Avoid It Cara Liebowitz

Guide to Allyship

7. Inclusive language

Language continues to be an extremely divisive topic in all areas of diversity and inclusion, for many reasons.

Language habits are surprisingly difficult to change quickly and transgressions can be obvious - having language mistakes pointed out can be an extremely uncomfortable experience, especially if it’s done in front of a third party.

Language is very personal and our choice of language can feel like a huge part of who we are - part of our identity. With this in mind, asking someone to change their language can often be viewed as intrusive or a “step too far”.

With Diversity and Inclusion progressing so fast today, it can also feel like “new rules” are being released all the time and it can feel hard to keep up.

People rarely say things to purposely cause offense to an individual and the use of offensive terms is often combined with “banter” or “having a laugh”.

Appearing to “ban” those terms can create a very real feeling of censorship. Asking people not to use terms that we wouldn’t ever be remotely offended by, can feel “petty” or like people are “being too sensitive”.

Language is personal. Everyone uses it differently and everyone hears it differently so using perfectly inoffensive language to all people at all times can feel like an impossible task. However, especially in the workplace, we must try.

REFLECTION

Who is the judge of offensiveness? Read the terms below and notice your reaction to them.

Idiot.

Retard.

Moron.

Cretin.

Mong.

Spaz.

Duh.

Can non-disabled people pick and choose which are offensive terms - and which are not?
Did you know that all of these terms were originally used to describe people with disabilities?
Knowing this, is it right to use any of these terms in the workplace?
What would be your action if these terms were reported as being exclusionary at your workplace?

Language doesn’t necessarily have to be insulting, offensive or a “slur” to be considered ableist. Language can be also ableist if it perpetuates the superiority of abled people over disabled people.

REFLECTION

Consider the following terms and how they might sound to the person with the disability.

Phrase: “Josh is confined to a wheelchair”

Reality: Josh found getting his new wheelchair freed him immeasurably to feel included, be active and live a full life.

Phrase: "Jacquie suffers from autism"

Reality: Jacquie is autistic and it’s a huge part of her identity. She is part of a vibrant community who celebrates their neurological differences with great pride.

The language we use can provide listeners with insights into our beliefs - and biases. Subtle exclusionary words and phrases can hold people with disabilities back from feeling included in a workplace.

Sarah, an HR consultant told us:

I have a long-term mental illness - although it’s classed as a disability in that at times it significantly affects my ability to operate normally, it’s not evident and most people would never “find out” without me telling them.

Our workplace was doing a lot towards mental health awareness and with all the emphasis on de-stigmatising mental illness, I briefly considered doing a talk to my colleagues about my condition at work.

Through this lens I decided to wait and sit with the idea for a while. My antennae were up, and suddenly it seemed like everywhere I turned I was hearing words like “manic” “psycho” “depressing” “mental” “crazy” "nutter" used completely unthinkingly, in everyday conversation.

I knew phrases like “that was so boring it made me want to kill myself”, “he’s a total nut job” and “I’ll end up in the loony bin” were being meant completely innocently, but to me they closed the door of acceptance.

I knew that in the back of their minds they would be thinking those things about me.

Using ableist language highlights the fact that you are uneducated in, wilfully ignorant of or worse, simply don’t care about the struggles of people with disabilities in society past and present.

By consciously (or unconsciously) using words that deem people with disabilities abnormal, inferior, defective or subhuman, we re-enforce the already widespread oppression of the whole group.

We may not mean to, but whilst ableist words are acceptable in everyday language, the gap will remain open. Becoming more aware of how everyday language helps perpetuate ableist ideas and values is a very important step in closing gaps between people with disabilities and those without.

READ

Mental illness terms to use, terms to avoid Amy Bulthuis

Ableist words and terms to avoid Lydia X. Z. Brown

Oppression and Power Palmer et al

WATCH

Talking about disability #workwithme

8. Recruitment

READ: How to Recruit for Equality and Retain Diverse Talent

#workwithme is a growing community of businesses committed to thinking and acting differently about disability committed to tackle the fact that a staggering 1 million disabled people in the UK want to work but aren’t given the opportunity. Download the #workwithmeguide

In her talk Disability and work: Let’s stop wasting talent, Hannah Barham-Brown makes an inarguable case for including people with disabilities in the workforce.

Imagine the frustration at seeing job descriptions looking for “natural problem solvers” and “people who think outside the box” when this so perfectly describes people with disabilities - who have to have these skills to get by in a world that was designed without them in mind.

People with disabilities in a world built for the non-disabled are, of course, problem solvers, yet there are 13.9M disabled people in the UK (that’s 1 in 5), and the UK disability employment gap is a whopping 30%.

The RNIB states that there are approximately 84,500 registered blind and partially sighted people of working age in the UK yet just one in four registered blind and partially sighted people are in employment - and this hasn’t significantly changed in a generation - and only around one in 10 people with poor functional vision is in paid employment.

Blind and partially sighted people are significantly less likely to be in paid employment than other disabled people. People with sight loss can face considerable barriers to finding and retaining employment and in recent research, blind and partially sighted people rated employment as the second biggest barrier they face in living their lives. The disability employment gap for registered blind and partially sighted people is around double that for people with other disabilities, and this gap is widening.

Make it obvious that you are a disability friendly employer

Check your job specifications for exclusionary terms, advertise your commitment to inclusion and diversity on your website and job ads.
Instead of leaving it up to candidates to tell you a) that they need access or assistance to attend an interview and b) what access they need, state up front what access you have provided - and can provide.
If you have provisions for hard of hearing or deaf or partially sighted or blind candidates, say so.
If your office is fully equipped for wheelchair users or you have the option to work remotely, say so.
Consider creating a video tour of your office pointing out all the accessibility and adjustments you have made.
If you have developed a neurodivergent-friendly interview process then make it clear.
If you are a mental health advocate organisation shout about this from the advert, on your website and in your organisation.

If you don’t already have these provisions, research them - and implement them - There are 1 million people disabled people in the UK right now, looking for work.

WATCH

Blind, not broken Annie Brady

How the Blind See the World Christine Ha

READ

Advertise outside the box Able

Positive action in recruitment and promotion Gov.uk

Disability Confident Training ENEI

9. Look at Autism differently

People with autism - or autistic people - typically differ from non-autistic people or “neurotypicals” in three areas: Social communication, social interaction and social imagination.

Autism is a spectrum condition, which means that different autistic people have vastly different traits. The spectrum is grouped as ‘autism spectrum disorder’ although many autistic people reject the term disorder deeming it medicalised, unnecessarily negative language. It’s estimated that 1% of the world is considered to be autistic and there are approximately 700,000 autistic adults and children in the UK.

The National Autistic Society says that autism is

a lifelong disability which affects how people communicate and interact with the world.

However many, including many autistic people see autism is just one part of an incredible range of possible human brain differences - termed Neurodiversity. The neurodiversity paradigm simply presents autism as ‘a different way of thinking’.

In her talk Why everything you know about autism is wrong, Jac den Houting says that around 1 in 50 people are autistic yet around 60% of autistic adults are under or unemployed. People with autism can be extremely reliable employees who can often possess good attention to detail, high levels of concentration and strong research skills.

ACTIVITY

Read the Fit For Work guide to autism in the workplace

Does your organisation have any autistic employees/people with autism?
How could you increase awareness of what autism is within your workplace?
How could individuals with autism best fit into your organisation?
What reasonable adjustments could you make to accommodate more people with autism?

In his brilliant talk Embrace the Potential of Autism, Lars Johansson-Kjellerød, who only employs people with Asperger’s, describes how understanding autism is a simple key to unlock a vast talent pool. In the talk, he tells of an employee who needed to nap during the day as he couldn’t stop reading the notes written on the wall and it was exhausting his brain - but not all autistic people would be able to articulate this.

Self-education is crucial before embarking on a search for autistic employees - for the sake of creating an inclusive environment. Autistic people can make extremely dedicated, detail orientated and reliable employees but a typical workplace risks overloading them with sensory inputs that they can’t filter out or process in the same way a neurotypical people might be able to.

Take a look at the list below (adapted from the original list on Workology).

How easily could your organisation make these adjustments to make it easier for autistic people to work in comfort?

Locate autistic workers in quiet, dimly lit areas of the office. Overly bright, open office environments can create challenges for autistic workers who can become overloaded with sensory distractions (lights, ‘ambient’ noise, strong smells).

Anticipate employee requests for adjustments. Take a look at your current adjustments for disability. Autism adjustments are often small requests such as noise cancelling headphones or wearing hats or glasses for light sensitivity inside the office.

Add neurodiversity to your corporate training programs. Employers spend a great deal of time and effort on diversity training and awareness programs. Consider updating your existing programs to include information and resources on autism and other neurodivergences.

Provide additional training, resources and support for your autistic workforce. Establish an employee mentor program where employees have a trained and trusted peer they can build a relationship with, learn from and help understand and integrate with the company and its culture.

TOOLS

Autism At Work for companies with autistic employees | National Autistic Society

Neurocyber: Neurodiversity accessible events, information and inclusion guidance.

WATCH

Embrace the Potential of Autism Lars Johansson-Kjellerød

Why everything you know about autism is wrong Jac den Houting

What happens to children with autism, when they become adults? Kerry Magro

What it's really like to have autism Ethan Lisi

Neurodiversity: A different way of looking at the world dyslex.io

10. Understanding the Social Model of Disability

“But I do, I really feel sorry for you.” I knew exactly what this person felt sorry about. They felt sorry about the fact that I didn’t look like them. They felt sorry because they believed I was worse off in life than them. They felt sorry that, apparently, my body had somehow let me down. What they failed to see was that I didn’t feel sorry for myself. And that it wasn’t my body that had let me down, but society. Through inaccessibility, exclusionary practices, and damaging tropes, disabled people still live in a world filled with discrimination and inequality.
READ: The Power of Pity: the offensiveness of using disability to gain sympathy by Elizabeth Wright, Disability activist, Paralympic Medalist, Powered By Diversity Collective
Elizabeth Wright, Disability activist, Paralympic Medalist, Powered By Diversity Collective

The Social Model of disability is based on the paradigm that it isn’t the individual that has a disability, rather it’s the society that we have created which disables the individuals.

Mentalhealth.org.uk terms it like this:

If modern life was set up in a way that was accessible for people with disabilities then they would not be excluded or restricted. The distinction is made between ‘impairments’, which are the individual problems which may prevent people from doing something, and ‘disability’, which is the additional disadvantage bestowed by a society which treats these ‘impairments’ as abnormal, thus unnecessarily excluding these people from full participation in society. The social model of disability says that it is society which disables impaired people.

Some of the key ways people are disabled by society are:

prejudice
labelling
ignorance
lack of financial independence
families being over protective
not having information in formats which are accessible to them.

ACTIVITY

Watch the short video Social model of disability by Scope:

What are your thoughts on the social model in relation to your workplace?
Is it a place where people with disabilities would feel more disabled or less?
How could you create a physical environment where people with disabilities feel comfortable?
How could you create a culture where people with disabilities feel comfortable?

READ

Social Model of disability mentalhealth.org.uk

Every Day Equality Scope