84 per cent of employers say offering adjustments for employees with disability expanded their access to talent. However, people with disability remain underrepresented in the workforce. How can HR help to bridge this gap?

Achieving equity in employment for people with disability is an ongoing challenge in Australia and around the world.

Despite advances in workplace technology and shifts in government policy around disability employment, people with disability are still significantly underrepresented in the Australian workforce – just 56 per cent of people with disability are employed, compared to 82 per cent of those without disability. This gap grows even wider at the senior and board-level ranks of an organisation.  

Recent research conducted by Australian Disability Network (AusDN) highlights a disconnect between employers’ intentions and employees’ lived experiences when it comes to accessibility and inclusion. 

Based on surveys of over 600 employees and employers, its findings showed over half of employees with disability (56 per cent) fear being treated differently if they request adjustments to manage their disabilities. 

“This fear may not be directly related to the person’s employer or their experience within their current organisation – it could also be based on their previous experience of stigma around sharing their disability information, or any number of other reasons,” says Emma Henningsen, Chief Experience Officer at AusDN, who lives with disability.

“This feeds into the need to create and foster a psychologically safe culture where the provision of adjustments is normalised.”

To mark this year’s International Day of People with Disability (3 December), Henningsen spoke with HRM to discuss the tangible steps HR practitioners can take to help managers and leaders bridge this gap and drive meaningful change in disability employment.

Breaking down recruitment barriers

Rigid or biased recruitment practices are often the first hurdle for people with disability in securing employment. Without an accessible hiring process, employers risk losing out on countless talented candidates in a tight jobs market, says Henningsen.

“Recruitment can be a challenging and awkward process for anybody, let alone for a person with disability,” she says.

“[An example] of the unintentional barriers that people throw up during those processes is having your online application not be accessible for a screen reader, or not having the opportunity to apply in a different way if you need to.”

These barriers are often more pronounced in larger organisations, where bulk recruitment processes sometimes fail to accommodate individual needs. With the use of AI in recruitment growing in popularity, the risk of bias is intensifying.

“AI is built with our biases, and humans are fallible creatures – we move through the world with inherent bias,” she says. “For example, [AI face-scanning software] could potentially impact people with facial disfigurements or people who are neurodivergent and who might not engage with the camera in the way that it’s designed for. 

“That could potentially knock people out of the recruitment process, which is unfair. So there’s a lot of risk inherent in not having guardrails around these new systems.” 

To ensure an accessible and unbiased recruitment process, HR first needs to help the organisation to normalise conversations around accessibility, she says. Whether an employee lives with disability or not, recruiters need to understand their needs up front. 

“As much as you would ask someone what their dietary requirements are [before an event], ask what their accessibility needs are.”

Recruiters should be aware that asking about necessary adjustments during the process does not mean quizzing an employee on the exact nature of their disability – only the ways in which it impacts their ability to access and participate in the process.

“The important thing isn’t the kind of disability that they have, because you might find that you have three people with the exact same disability on paper who have wildly different adjustment requirements,” she says. “Disability is as unique as a person’s fingerprints.”

Ensuring recruiters and managers are aware of this distinction and the need to keep bias in check is one of the most important hurdles for businesses to overcome in ensuring an inclusive hiring process. 

Henningsen, who has a congenital limb deficiency, has experienced first-hand the inherent biases that can hold candidates back from employment opportunities. 

“I’ve had a job interview where I’ve put my hand out to shake someone’s hand, because that’s what my parents always told me I had to do. And they looked down, saw my hand, and then almost fell over. And I thought, ‘I am about to waste 40 minutes of my life – I am not getting this job.’”

“The important thing isn’t the kind of disability that they have, because you might find that you have three people with the exact same disability on paper who have wildly different adjustment requirements.” – Emma Henningsen, Chief Experience Officer, Australian Disability Network

Small adjustments, big impact

Most employers are aware of their obligation under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 to provide ‘reasonable adjustments’ to support employees living with disability. However, employers have a tendency to overestimate the time and costs associated with workplace adjustments, says Henningsen. 

“When people think about an adjustment, they think they’ll need a ramp, or they’ll need a lift, or these large-scale things for people to be able to participate. And yes, in some organisations, that’s needed. But generally, the adjustments are things like additional time to look at your questions during an interview. 

“For me, it’s as simple as having a trackball mouse, so when I’m reviewing things and spending a lot of time with my hand on the keyboard, the trackball mouse supports me to be able to navigate through a page without pain.

“Flexible work is a really key piece as well… Working a compressed fortnight is another example of a workplace adjustment which helps me manage my physical health and get to appointments and things that I wouldn’t necessarily be able to do [otherwise].”

AusDN’s research shows adjustments are usually relatively simple and inexpensive. According to its findings, the most commonly requested adjustments are: 

• Working from home (87 per cent)
• Flexible work hours (83 per cent)
• Taking time off for appointments/taking breaks to help manage a condition (78 per cent)
• Permanent workspaces instead of hot-desking (62 per cent). 

“Really simple things like that are actually really effective,” says Henningsen. “And when you provide these simple things as par for the course – so, [for example], flexible work is just part of your process – you’re actually alleviating the pressure on your team members to have to ‘prove’ their disability or their situation to actually get what they need.”

Not only do these measures help to safeguard wellbeing and accessibility, they also directly benefit employers. Ninety-three per cent of employers surveyed reported that offering adjustments like these led to more equitable recruitment processes, and 84 per cent said it expanded their access to talent.

Despite this, a lack of training around workplace adjustments is still holding many employers back. Over 30 per cent of employers said their managers had not received any training on workplace adjustments. This is something employers have a responsibility to change, says Henningsen.

“There’s some really fabulous training available for managers to upskill and to feel confident in asking those questions,” she says. “Because it can feel a bit stressful asking people what they might need…. [for some], it feels like it’s going to open up a box of worms that they don’t know how to navigate.”

To allay these concerns, managers should be encouraged to approach workplace adjustments with a curious mindset and without fear of making mistakes.

“Know that you’re probably going to get it wrong sometimes, but the key is to know that you’re doing something and to keep going.” 

Embedding accessibility into your organisation

As well as upskilling managers in supporting team members living with disability, HR can also examine the policies and processes in place behind the scenes to identify and remove any systemic barriers to disability inclusion.

“You shouldn’t have to have a good manager in order to get what you need,” says Henningsen. “Have policies in place, have structures in place, and set those structures in stone, so that the next person can come in and there’s that continuity of practice for people with disability in your organisation to get what they need.”

These structures must also support every stage of employment, from onboarding to professional development and even offboarding. 

Two of the most important items to have in place are a Workplace Adjustments policy and an Access and Inclusion Plan, she adds. Employers can learn more about essential inclusions in these policies via the AusDN website. 

You could also consider having employees create a personal situation plan (see template here) to help their managers learn about any adjustments that are required and how their capabilities can be best utilised. This is worth doing for those with and without disability and goes a long way in creating an inclusive culture.

These structures will become even more critical as Australia’s demographics continue to shift. 

“We’re an aging workforce. [Most] people are going to end up with some form of disability or another, or they’re going to become the carer of a person with disability,” says Henningsen. 

“So we want to make sure that those processes are in place to provide adjustments and to support people to continue doing the good work that they’ve done for however many years within their organisations. You don’t want to lose good people because they acquire a disability.”

Sustainable inclusion requires moving beyond ad hoc solutions. By addressing recruitment barriers, normalising workplace adjustments and embedding accessibility into policy, HR practitioners can help unlock the full potential of employees with disability.

Build your knowledge of DEI business drivers and industry best practices for leading diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces with AHRI’s DEI for HR Leaders short course.