There are over 14 million disabled people in the UK, with nearly 4 million of those already in employment. If your business isn’t willing to accommodate and support disabled employees, you are losing out on many exceptional candidates who could bring new skills and ideas to your business. By only hiring non-disabled people, you are reducing your potential candidates by a fifth!
As well as this, disabled people have had to face many challenges in their lives. We live in a world which is not always accommodating to the needs of disabled people, meaning they may have had to fight harder to live, work, and socialise happily and comfortably. Because of this, many disabled people have vast amounts of resilience and perseverance, which are invaluable qualities to have in an employee in your workplace.
Finally, by employing a disabled candidate, you are contributing to the elimination of discrimination in the workplace. Despite the 2010 Equality Act declaring it against the law to discriminate against somebody because of a disability, a disabled person still has 35% less chance of being hired than their non-disabled counterpart.