What is Disability Pride Month?
Taking place every July, Disability Pride Month is celebrated globally by disabled people and their allies.
During this event, the disability community celebrates their identity, plus their successes and achievements, whilst also maintaining the fight against ableism and prejudices that still occur today.
Why is it so important?
Even though disability is a protected characteristic under the UK Equality Act, there is still so much work to do when the reports highlighted below provide a snapshot of the working lives of disabled people.
“While wellbeing scores have improved this year overall, the report has found that disabled people are more likely to be at risk of poor wellbeing at work (known as ‘Wellbeing Risk’).
The Wellbeing Risk for disabled people currently sits at 36%, 5 percentage points above the global average of 31%. In the UK, wellbeing risk is even higher at 38%, compared to the national average of 33%.”
From Learning Disability Today’s article, “New employment report highlights ‘disability workplace divide’”. The full report from WorkL cited in the article can be found here.
“[People with disabilities] are 6 percentage points less likely than nondisabled employees to indicate they are happy at work. They are nearly 15 percentage points more likely to say that work negatively impacts their mental and physical well-being and their relationships with friends and family. And they are 1.5 times more likely to have experienced discrimination at their organization than those without a disability or health condition.”
From the Boston Consulting Group’s report, “Your Workforce Includes People with Disabilities. Does Your People Strategy?”
“In a report published on Wednesday 24 April, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) called out the UK Government for their callous treatment of disabled people.
The report ruled that:
The Committee finds that the State party has failed to take all appropriate measures to address grave and systematic violations of the human rights of persons with disabilities and has failed to eliminate the root causes of inequality and discrimination”
From the Canary article, “UN announces UK government has failed disabled people”
Decoding the Disability Pride flag
The flag – a multicoloured stripe going diagonally across a dark grey background – represents the different types of disabilities celebrated this month. The colours in the stripe represent the following (In order of appearance from top to bottom):
Green stands for sensory disabilities
Blue represents emotional and psychiatric disabilities
White stands for non-visible and undiagnosed disabilities
Gold represents neurodiversity
Red stands for physical disabilities.
Meanwhile, the dark grey background represents those in the community who have been subjected to ableist violence, as well as representing protest against the prejudice and mistreatment of the disability community.
Making workplaces more disability-inclusive
Be mindful of language
“Some people would prefer to refer to themselves as “disabled”, as they are disabled by the world when accessibility has not been thoroughly considered. Others would prefer “person with a disability”, as this implies they are an individual who happens to have a medical condition…
The most important thing is to ask someone what terminology they’d prefer, and then respect that choice and educate the rest of the company to do the same.”
Read more here.
The UK Government has further guidelines on language:
“Consider these guidelines when communicating with or about disabled people:
- Avoid medical labels. They say little about people as individuals and tend to reinforce stereotypes of disabled people as ‘patients’ or unwell.
- Avoid phrases like ‘suffers from’ which suggest discomfort, constant pain and a sense of hopelessness.
- Wheelchair users may not view themselves as ‘confined to’ a wheelchair – try thinking of it as a mobility aid instead.
- Common phrases that may associate impairments with negative things should be avoided, for example ‘deaf to our pleas’ or ‘blind drunk’.”
Make reasonable adjustments for disability inclusion
“Reasonable adjustments are changes an employer makes to remove or reduce a disadvantage related to someone’s disability. For example:
- making changes to the workplace
- changing someone’s working arrangements
- finding a different way to do something
- providing equipment, services or support
Reasonable adjustments are specific to an individual person. They can cover any area of work.
It’s not enough for employers to provide disabled people with exactly the same working conditions as non-disabled people. Employers must make reasonable adjustments by law.”
Read more here.
Inclusive Leadership practices
“Review your organisation’s policy on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) relating to disability and your current process for making adjustments for employees. Identify whether it’s fit for purpose, and effective in meeting the needs of the business whilst supporting employees.
Ensure the culture of the organisation is one where people feel comfortable to share information about their health and disability, and to request reasonable adjustments.
Develop an action plan for change and assign accountability to people in senior roles.”
Read more here.
Further Resources & Information
“Disability inclusion in the workplace: The what, why and how”, from BetterUp
“6 tips to create disability inclusion at work”, from Inclusive Employers
Access All, from the BBC – This is a weekly podcast about disability, mental health and wellbeing
Disability Rights UK has a wealth of news and policy updates on their website
Enable Nuclear on LinkedIn – An industry-wide network supporting Disabled and/or Neurodivergent staff and Carers
