Making the Working Environment Accessible

Making the Working Environment Accessible

Why should the workplace be made more accessible?

Nearly seven million people of working age in the UK have a disability or a health condition. Historically, people with disabilities have an employment rate lower than people without disabilities, but there are simple ways and compelling reasons to reduce this employment gap.

Not only is providing equal opportunities clearly the right (and legally required) thing to do. Employing a wider range of people is also good for business since your company’s workforce better reflects the diversity of your customers. Encouraging applications from people who are disabled increases the number of high quality team members available and helps bring additional skills to the business – as well as potentially large savings.

There are many things employers and employees can do to help improve inclusivity in their working environment, and below we run through some of the most effective ways to make employment accessible for all.

Responsibilities

Employers must make what are known as ‘reasonable adjustments‘ to support employees with disabilities, which might include:

• changes to the employee’s working pattern, e.g. later starts or flexitime
• making physical alterations to their place of work, e.g. widening of doorways to allow wheelchair access
• modifying or acquiring equipment, e.g. text phones for the deaf or hard of hearing

Employees can also assist disabled colleagues by making small changes to their working style, for example, providing meeting notes in advance in an electronic format, or avoiding noisy environments when discussing tasks.

Some adjustments don’t require tangible objects or products but rather a change in attitude and approach. Rather than asking, “What support do you need?”, it’s more constructive to ask employees whether there are any potential barriers to them succeeding and, if they flag anything, ask what alternatives would work best for them. More often than not, people with disabilities will know what tools are helpful to them and will support them best in their role so make sure to consult them before putting anything in place for them.

Additionally, think about what is known as ‘job carving’. Let’s take the example of someone who suffers from anxiety who applies for a role which involves a small amount of public speaking and giving presentations. Apart from in this area, they’re a fantastic candidate and would be a real asset to the company. Consider whether this absolutely must be one of their duties or whether someone else could do this, and try to restructure the team’s responsibilities accordingly.

Physical environment

There’s a whole host of ways to make the physical environment more accessible, and these alterations don’t just benefit people with disabilities.

Installing ramps and automatic doors are obvious ways to make buildings more accessible. Ensuring there’s appropriate parking, lifts with Braille buttons and audio announcements, and accessible meeting rooms and conference halls are also important considerations when assessing the physical working environment.

Making small adjustments to ensure work areas are spacious, accessible, well signed and lit can make a huge difference for people with limited mobility or visual or hearing impairments, and these changes can actually be useful to everyone.

Technical environment

Increasingly, technology – more specifically, assistive technology and accessible technology – is being used to provide support at work to those who need it.

So what is assistive technology, and how does it differ from accessible technology? Assistive technology is technology that’s been specifically designed to help people with disabilities perform a task, e.g screen readers which help people with disabilities read electronic material, or live captioning which enables deaf employees in the workplace to participate in conference calls.

Technology that has been designed to cater for the needs of lots of different users is known as accessible technology, e.g. software with built-in customisable features so users can tailor it to their specific needs.

This approach is at the core of the concept of Universal Design, according to which software, hardware, facilities, equipment – in short, everything – is created with the needs of all potential users in mind from the very beginning. Why spend extra money (often substantial amounts) adapting an existing product to account for one particular requirement when you can build this in from the outset for little or no extra cost?

As you’ll be aware, not all disabilities are visible. Technology aimed at supporting people with dyslexia (dictation software, or mind mapping tools for people who think more visually) and mental health issues (tools to help with organisation and overcoming anxiety) is widely available, often for free.

Where technology or services are not available free of charge, government funding is often available to cover the cost, meaning companies have no financial disincentive to employ a disabled candidate or support a disabled employee.

Access to Work

The UK Government’s Access to Work scheme is designed to address the lack of support at work for people who have a disability or a physical or mental health condition.

Based on the employee’s individual support needs, up to £57,200 in funding is available per year, and this can cover assistive technology, adaptations to existing equipment, travel to and from work, and communication support, including live captioning.

Our live captioning service, Ai-Live, helps support Deaf employment and can be covered by Access to Work funding. Ai-Live provides access to spoken dialogue, displaying what is said on a screen in real time, allowing people who are deaf or hard of hearing to participate fully in meetings, conference calls, training sessions and events.

Anyone in employment with a disability, physical or mental health condition can apply for funding by filling out an Access to Work application form online. Once it’s confirmed that they’re eligible to receive a grant, recommendations for certain support services are made.

If you need any information on our Ai-Live captioning service as part of an Access to Work funding application, please get in touch at