Keep Pushing Forward Disability Inclusion at Work
Businesses are increasingly striving to make workplaces and job roles fully inclusive for disabled workers. It is vital to remember the importance of reasonable adjustments at work as Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes more important in our workplaces.
Employers and businesses are facing challenging times. The geopolitical climate, economic pressures, and navigating the opportunities and the unknowns that AI presents are just some of the issues facing organisations.
The provision of timely, person-centred workplace adjustments remains central to improving workplace experience for disabled people and productivity more widely.
Disabled people and the experiences they bring remain an asset that can help to improve the workplace for everyone – not just people who identify as disabled. Disability inclusive approaches benefit everyone.
Inclusive recruitment practices remain vital if employers are to continue to attract the talent needed and avoid a future skills shortage.
In practice, this means taking an end-to-end look at your recruitment processes and identifying anything that may be acting as a barrier for disabled candidates.
Disability-inclusive practice does not begin and end with recruitment.
The provision of needed adjustments remains core throughout the employee lifecycle.
Many disabled people wait too long to get the adjustments they need.
Disabled colleagues need to be involved in decision-making around AI, from defining AI need through to procurement, user-testing and reviewing. Accessible training and learning opportunities around AI need to be made available to staff so that no one misses out.
