Disability Awareness Month in the UK

By Fiona Pizzey, Administration Officer, IOA

In the UK July marks Disability Awareness Month. It’s a good time to de-myth and destigmatise the topic of disability in the workplace and beyond.

The social model of disability tells us that society, the environment, processes, attitudes and other barriers are what limit people rather than their impairment, difference or condition. That’s why I choose the term ‘disabled people’ to reflect the negative impact on the individual person of structural and systemic hurdles.

Barriers can be physical like buildings with no ramps, lack of hearing loops or no braille signage. They can be attitudinal like a taxi driver refusing a lift to someone with an assistance dog, believing that someone with sight loss can’t work in a call centre or talking to the person pushing the wheelchair rather than the wheelchair user.

The law requires us all to do better at identifying and removing the obstacles that unnecessarily exist. More importantly, as individuals we should be more intentional about including and engaging disabled people by anticipating that not all disabilities are obvious, asking everyone whether there's anything that would enable them to thrive more and sensibly accommodating any response – it’s the right thing to do.

The legacy of the historic impediments faced by disabled people are stark in the UK. This House of Commons Research Briefing Paper from 2022 illustrates that disabled people are more likely to be lonely, unemployed, a victim of crime, not a homeowner and not have a degree.

So, this Disability Awareness month please bear in mind these 3 things:

• We are all more likely to acquire a disability as we age. Only 17% of disabled people were born with a disability, 9% of children have disabilities and 21% of working age adults do*. You may consider yourself not to be disabled but a better way of thinking is to think ‘I’m not disabled yet’ and this reframes your connection and worldview.
• Have a look at this really good guide from the charity Scope called ‘End the Awkward.’ It’s a no nonsense guide to becoming more fluent and confident in the subject of disability.
• Finally, if you have not already done so please consider joining the Disability Confident Employer programme from the Department for Work and Pensions. It’s designed for everyone whether starting out, moving on or at the peak of disability friendly workplaces.

*You can find out much more about disability data from the ONS England and Wales Census 2021