How EFD is changing perceptions of disability, according to Able magazine

From the June 2010 edition of Able magazine, reproduced here with their kind permission. 

'The Ability Conversation'

As it approaches its 20th year, how has the Employers’ Forum on Disability changed the lives of disabled people across the UK – and what are the challenges for  the future?

Words: Paul F Cockburn

"We're not a conventional disability organisation in that we don’t help people directly into work, and we’re not a conventional confederation that’s just focused on business." Nevertheless, Susan Scott-Parker – Chief Executive of the Employers’ Forum on Disability – believes that her organisation has helped change the lives and prospects of disabled people across the UK.

"We would say that we make it easier for employers to get it right in terms of recruiting disabled people, employing and promoting disabled colleagues and serving disabled customers," Susan explained. "And the underlying premise is that anything that makes it easier for the employer makes it easier for disabled people."

Launched in 1991, with the official blessing of Prince Charles, the Forum now has a membership of public and private sector employers (including big names such as B&Q. the BBC and BT – and that’s just the Bs!) which pays the wages of roughly one in five of the UK workforce.  

Making a difference

So, why do businesses – including some of the biggest in the UK and beyond – choose to join the EFD? Samantha Bidwell is Director, Global Diversity & Inclusion, at American Express. The UK division (or 'market') has now been a member of EFD for around three years. "We'd been thinking about disability for a while, in particular with our call centre where we’ve been looking at recruitment strategy for disabled employees," she told us. "We felt that, unlike other areas of diversity – such as gender, race or LGBT – we didn’t really have an expert or partner organisation to help us develop our strategy. That was the reason why, in the UK, we joined the Employers’ Forum on Disability."

Three years on, they have found EFD to be an invaluable resource. "They do have a very good advisory/research facility; they can answer any questions that we have," Samantha added, "particularly in terms how to set up disabled employee networks. When it comes to disability, it’s quite often harder to set up employee networks compared with those for our Black and Asian employees, for women, and LGBT employees."

The National Audit Office has likewise been a member of the EFD for around three years. Their Attendance and Welfare Specialist, Emily Wintle, told us: "We use their Advice line a lot and we find it very useful for consulting on specific cases; that’s absolutely one of the main benefits. The newsletters and the Briefings that come through also give us some best practice ideas with which we consult."

Constructive challenge

With the Americans with Disabilities Act preceding the UK’s original Disability Discrimination Act by five years, Samantha accepts that the US-based American Express has a more established relationship with its disabled employees, through awell-established Differently Abled Network (DAN). While the UK company is in regular communication with the US DAN, Susan recognises that the Forum has an important role to play. “From what we’re seeing, through the Employers’ Forum on Disability, there’s a lot more expertise that we’re tapping into here,” she insisted

Emily Wintle agrees that the EFD’s work has aided the development of a strong disability network within the NAO. "They're very active in helping make sure we are doing what we should be doing, which is useful," she added. "And we have a good relationship with the people in that Network, we work together."

Martin Swain is the Director Policy, Employee Relations and Diversity & Inclusion at healthcare giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which he believes fully embraces the aims of the Forum. "I think we’ve gained very strong advice, very good practice from EFD," he told us. “We receive constructive challenge, which I think is very important – and support enabling us to do what is right. The beauty of the EFD is that they don’t preach; it’s good, practical, pragmatic support."

Back to the future?

So, given the progress so far, what next for the EFD? One immediate challenge on the horizon is the arrival this October of the new Equality Act – which replaces more than 100 different pieces of legislation, including the Disability Discrimination Act. "The Code of Practice for this new Act has 366 pages so far – I don't regard that as simplifying," Susan admitted.

However, an increased emphasis for the EFD is working to ensure technology is as accessible as possible. "I think the work the EFD are doing on influencing technology is a real key," said Martin Swain. "That's a major win if we can get some of the technology providers to really understand the impact they can have on disability in the workplace."

The thrust of this work is being carried out by the Forum’s Business Taskforce on Accessible Technology (BTAT). "We thought in the early days that the technology was going to liberate, it would be Stephen Hawking moments every day," Susan explained. "Instead, of course, all too often the technology is actually getting in the way when it could liberate if people got it right. The Taskforce is proving to be one of the most important things we’ve ever done because, for the first time, we’re bringing the organisations that buy the technology together and changing what they expect from their ICT (Information and Communications Technology) suppliers."

Going global 

Given the global nature of the ICT sector, Canadian-born Susan Scott-Parker is the first to point out that "you can't do little UK things anymore". While it’s good that a large number of countries have signed up to the UN Human Rights Convention, difficulties could arise for global companies faced with potentially ‘inconsistent, fragmented and perhaps contradictory legislation’ regarding access to technology. “That won’t make it easier for us to get this right,” said Susan, “which is why we’re drafting procurement specifications with the intention that global corporate will use them in every country, in every conversation with every global IT supplier – to ensure that, whatever they’re buying, it makes it easier for disabled people to get jobs, keep jobs and buy stuff, whatever legislation applies in any given country.”

This clearly makes sense for some EFD members, including GSK. “From our viewpoint GSK are very supportive of the EDF’s project on globalisation,” Martin Swain told us. “As a global organisation ourselves, it would be nice to work with a disability standard that is global – that doesn’t exist at the moment, so disability is defined in different ways and treated very differently in different countries. So to be able to get more of an understanding of a global standard would be extremely beneficial.”

Indeed, GSK could be said to have already put their money where their corporate mouth is. The organisation’s own PULSE initiative funds the placement of GSK employees in a variety of non-governmental organisations for six month periods. “We’re now on our second placement at the EFD,” Martin told us. “Our intent is that we’ll continue to supply a PULSE volunteer to work within the EFD on the globalisation project.”

The ability conversation

Emily Wintle of the National Audit Office agrees, certainly when it comes to their own disabled employees. “The Forum has helped us make our workplace better and make the appropriate adjustments for our disabled staff, so it’s impacted on them directly.”

Martin Swain believes that the Forum has had a significant effect on the wider lives of disabled people. “They’ve made a huge impact on the lives of disabled people, in challenging employers and making employers open their eyes and open their minds towards the employment of disabled people,” he told us. “They’ve made us have the Ability Conversation rather than the Disability Conversation,” he added. “Every individual has got ability, and what we’ve just got to do is find what that ability is and how we can best utilise that.”

An ongoing challenge for the EFD, according to Susan Scott-Parker, is to ensure that businesses continue to meet and interact with “more disabled people next year than this, because “It’s only that kind of contact that’s actually going to deliver the kind of change we’re after,” said Susan Scott-Parker. “When business people ‘get it’, they see that actually spending a lot of money on technology which then disempowers thousands of their colleagues – because its working to the old paradigm that says that human beings are all the same, only the technology differs – is bizarre!

“If we make it easier for the business to get this right, disabled people will have a much better deal,” she added. “It will be much easier for disabled people to demonstrate what they can do.”   

Employers' Forum on Disability

The Employers' Forum on Disability (EFD) is a membership organisation for UK businesses that aims to make it easier for businesses to recruit and retain disabled employees, serve disabled customers and develop partnerships with disabled people. Between them, the EFD’s 400-plus members employ around one fifth of the UK workforce.

EFD offers member organisations a wide range of resources, including publications, briefing papers, seminars and conferences. There are regional networks in Scotland, Wales and Yorkshire, along with sector specific networks for the creative industries (including broadcasting) and law enforcement. Advice and information is also available through a national helpline, Disability Directions.

EFD has also developed the Disability Standard to establish a common understanding in the private and public sectors of what constitutes best practice on disability. This is the only business-led benchmark that accurately measures their performance on disability across the whole business and puts in place action plans to address priority areas.

Not just a diversity issue

“There is an assumption all too often that disability can be relegated to a Diversity category, a kind of holding bay, when actually, unless you do disability-specific things, trying to make progress on this issue within broader generalities around diversity and inclusion just doesn’t work,” Susan Scott-Parker told us.

“One of the lessons from the last few months of our Taskforce is that it’s a very important IT issue, it’s a procurement issue, it’s a business process issue – at one level, it has nothing to do with diversity much at all, because what we’re trying to do is to make technology work for everyone.

“What needs to be done to employ disabled people and welcome disabled customers is very different and very specific compared to what employers need to do if they are to maximise the contribution of women or people from ethnic minorities or indeed any of the other diversity ‘strands’,” she added. “Virtually every department in the business needs to be not just ‘diversity aware’– they have to learn how to do disability-specific things differently while setting a new standard for business performance.”

What is a 'disability confident' employer?

According to Employers’ Forum on Disability, ‘disability confident’ can be recognised through:

• Their understanding of how disability affects their talent pool, their people, their shareholders, their customers and the communities in which they operate.
• Their removal of barrier for groups and also willingness to make further adjustments for individuals.
• Their disability-specific investment of time and effort in ensuring business procedures do not lead to inaccessibility.