Disability History Month Tips for Employers

This week, as part of Disability History Month, we’re sharing our top ten tips for employers. These tips will help you achieve more accessible and inclusive workplaces and study environments, where disabled chemists are able to bring their valuable contributions, and achieve their full potential.

If you’re a disabled chemist, tell us in the comments what you’d like to see employers do differently.

1. Reduce the burden of self-advocacy – Disabled and neurodivergent people often encounter situations where they need to advocate for themselves to access a comfortable workplace or study environment. This burden of self-advocacy can be particularly challenging for those who may already be dealing with the physical, emotional, or cognitive impacts of their disabilities.

2.    Create psychologically safe working environments – Individuals should feel comfortable expressing their views, questions and concerns in the workplace without fear of judgement or negative evaluation from their colleagues. This is especially important for neurodivergent employees as it may help to create an environment where it is safe to unmask.

3.       Adopt inclusive recruitment practices – For neurodivergent individuals, traditional recruitment processes can be a disadvantage, creating anxiety and failing to enable them to showcase their strengths and abilities. Neurodivergent individuals are often an untapped talent pool in the chemical sciences, and inclusive recruitment practices can help to ensure their talent is not missed.

4.       Improve disability data collection – Disability data can be difficult to interpret, in part due to discrepancies between the number of people who meet the legal definition of disability and those who share this information. By understanding the barriers to data sharing, employers can nurture a collaborative and trusting approach for better data collection and make progress with disability inclusion.

5.       Offer flexible working hours – By allowing employees to work when they are most productive, organisations can optimise the performance of their workforce, and employees are more likely to feel supported and valued by their employer. This fosters a sense of loyalty and commitment, reducing turnover rates and recruitment costs.

6.       Make lab spaces more accessible – The layout and design of laboratory spaces can be inaccessible for disabled chemists and chemistry students. It is important to remember and accommodate the different needs of disabled individuals, including access and sensory needs.

7.       Encourage networking and mentoring – Networking, peer support and mentoring can be vital in helping individuals navigate any barriers they face, while also enhancing an individual’s skillset, boosting their confidence and providing valuable insight and advice specific to the individual’s unique circumstances and needs. Organisations should support and resource disability-focussed networking events and staff networks.

8.       Provide training and education resources – Greater awareness and insight into disabilities and neurodiversity is key to building an inclusive and accessible workplace. Employers should educate their employees to dispel any misconceptions and improve understanding.

9.       Create accessible support systems – Creating accessible systems for requesting support will help encourage people to ask for help before they reach a crisis point, and give line managers the tools and capability to respond in an accepting, inclusive and supportive manner.

10.  Reduce financial burdens – Making reasonable adjustments for disabled people is a legal requirement in the UK, but research from the Royal Society of Chemistry shows members of the chemical sciences workforce have expressed frustration with a lack of accountability when it comes to employers covering the cost of workplace adjustments, with some reporting different departments would “pass the buck” and leave them in limbo. Improving knowledge and understanding of the types of accommodations that disabled employees may require can help to overcome any hesitancy employers might have around covering the costs of adjustments.