One in three disabled jobseekers in UK face discrimination

Up to 37% of disabled jobseekers have been discriminated against during the recruitment process according to research commissioned by the Recruitment Industry Disability Initiative (RIDI).

There is also a significant disparity between the perceptions of candidates and recruiters in terms of the provision of ‘reasonable adjustments’ made to accommodate disabled jobseekers – a legal requirement under the Equality Act 2010. Despite the fact that 82% of recruiters claim reasonable adjustments are made to cater for disabled jobseekers, 58% of those candidates say that no such adjustments were made.??

Kate Headley, director of consulting at the Clear Company, a diversity consultancy which conducted the survey on behalf of RIDI, commented: “When around one in every 18 jobseekers has a disability this inevitably means that employers are missing out on a rich pool of talent.”