Providing Evidence for Policy & Practice
on Disability in the Workplace

Disability@Work is a group of four academic researchers who have a long-standing interest in disability in the workplace and in the labour market. This is our website.

By presenting accessible summaries of our research, our aim is to encourage governments, organisations and practitioners to engage with our findings and use them to inform workplace practice and labour market policy.

Contact us if you would like to be added to our mailing list, discuss our research findings with us, get involved in our current research projects, or suggest avenues for our future research.

Disability employment disadvantage

The disability employment gap (DEG) is the percentage point difference in the employment rate between non-disabled and disabled people. The trend has been downwards from 33 to 28 percentage points (a 15% fall). The prevalence-adjusted DEG is a composite measure which takes account of the impact of a substantial increase in disability prevalence (30%) on the DEG. This measure was stable at an average of 5.6% until the third quarter of 2019 after which it increased to 6.7%.

 

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Disability Talking is a short film. The drivers of the employment disadvantage for disabled people that we see in statistics such as the disability employment gap are uncovered as four disabled people describe the barriers and supports that they encounter in the workplace.

Watch Disability Talking now

Are disabled people’s employment rates improving?

Are disabled people’s employment rates improving?

An answer to this question requires a strong and consistent measure of disability. While the Labour Force Survey measure is a National Statistic, it is not consistent internally (due to question changes) or externally when compared with measures in other Government surveys.

Does the type of work differ for disabled people?

What type of jobs for disabled people?

Disabled employees are concentrated in non-standard forms of employment such as self-employment and part-time employment.

Disabled people and pay disadvantage

Disabled people and pay disadvantage

The disability pay gap is between 10 and 20% with up to a half of this gap remaining after controlling for personal and job characteristics.

Does the experience of work differ for disabled people?

Does the experience of work differ for disabled people?

There are disability-related gaps in reported wellbeing at work, perceived fairness of managers and job satisfaction when measured among otherwise similar workers in similar jobs. Such gaps provide an alternative and more encompassing measure of disadvantage at work.

All in it together? The impact of the recession on disabled people

All in it together? The impact of the recession on disabled people

Disabled people recount more negative effects in terms of changes to workload, work organisations, pay and access to training.

How can unions support disabled employees?

How can unions support disabled employees?

Trade unions may have an important role to play in representing the interests of disabled people, and in recent times have developed new specialist workplace Equality Representative and Disability Champion representative roles. What impact have unions in general (and these new representative roles more specifically) had in terms of improving workplace disability equality policy and practice?

Do equality policies and practices help?

How widely adopted are disability equality policies and practices?

Encouraging employers to offer all job applicants and employees equal opportunities to succeed at work has been a long-standing aim of governments and interest groups representing disabled people. A first step for employers is often to develop an equal opportunities policy and a range of equality practices to help deliver this.

The influence of the management and organisation of work on disabled people

The influence of the management and organisation of work on disabled people

Significant changes have taken place in recent times in relation to the way in which work is managed and organised. Have these changes have made the workplace a more welcoming or hostile environment for disabled people?

Do equality policies and practices help?

A contribution to halving the disability employment gap

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Disability Report, Ahead of the Arc: A Contribution to Halving the Disability Employment, provides bold and imaginative ideas targeted towards employer behaviour and organisational practice to achieve the step change needed to make real progress on this commitment.

Do equality policies and practices help?

A tale of two commitments

When the Government launched its long-awaited strategy on disability and employment, Improving Lives, it confirmed a change in its measure of progress from halving the difference in employment rates between disabled and non-disabled people by 2020 to a million more disabled people into employment by 2027. Does the target matter for measuring progress? If it does, which target is best?