Promoting change

Employers have an important part to play in developing a fresh approach to disability and promoting partnerships which enable everyone to contribute.

Business needs to:

• learn from disabled people directly, accessing their talents and purchasing power.
• ensure that high level business strategies explicitly aim to realise the potential for disabled people to contribute to business performance - and to create disability confident organisations.
• systematically explore, understand and overcome deeply rooted prejudices and fears in their organisations concerning disabled people and disability.

Governments need to:

• focus on overcoming ignorance and fear of disability with a particular emphasis on the education of young people
• position employers and disabled people as valued 'customers' of services which help people with disabilities into education, training and work
• improve their own ability to employ disabled people and value disabled people as citizens and stakeholders
• create a benefit system that has high expectations of disabled people's employability and provides security out of employment and incentives in employment
• monitor the impact of legislation on both disabled people and business

Non-profit organisations need to:

• meet the needs and expectations of business and so enhance their capacity to support disabled people into work
• actively empower disabled people as leaders, spokespeople, entrepreneurs and colleagues
• establish, with business, disability relevant performance measures in social accountability and other quality assurance standards