Section 1: Developing a positive culture

We heard from members that developing an open culture was critically important to disability inclusion.

Examples of inclusion that benefit everyone

All of the examples outlined below may be particularly helpful for some disabled or neurodivergent people, but will likely benefit everyone:

• Good file hygiene. For example, having a clear sub-folder structure on complex matters and ensuring consistent naming of documents can be particularly useful for those with dyslexia.
• Limiting meeting length and ensuring breaks between meetings may particularly benefit people with ADHD.
• Imagine a client of yours is deaf and requests a video call. Tips like muting your mic when not speaking; ensuring the room is well-lit but that you don’t have direct light behind your head which would impede lip-reading; speaking in plain language and switching your camera on to allow lipreading/see facial gestures would benefit a deaf client.
• Enabling the use of closed captions in video presentations will assist deaf people, but also make the presentation more accessible for others. For example, to watch in a noisy environment.

Defining disability – social model versus medical model

How disability is viewed affects the way that people think about disability and how disabled people are treated. This will influence the culture in an organisation.

This model has been developed by disabled people and says that people are disabled by barriers in our society, not by their impairment or difference. This can mean physical barriers like buildings not having an accessible entrance, or can refer to people’s attitudes to disability, such as assuming disabled people can't do certain things or must act in a certain way. This identifies barriers in society as being disabling to people.

This model focuses on the impairment a person has and identifies this as the barrier to a disabled person being able to engage fully in our society.  The medical model has been used in the past to influence development of legislation in this area.

Adopting the social model of disability within your workplace encourages a positive culture. This helps to identify where barriers exist affecting disabled people and therefore what needs to change to remove those barriers. This model is generally being adopted by many organisations and is endorsed by the UK Government’s Equalities Office.

Use a broad definition of disability, remembering that it will include some mental health conditions, visible and non-visible conditions, and fluctuating conditions. There are covered in more detail in other sections of this advice and information.

Developing a positive culture

Building an inclusive culture takes time, commitment and doesn’t happen by accident.  All of the tips in this document will help organisations develop an inclusive culture.  

Leaders need to lead 

Senior leadership sets the tone for the organisation. While developing an inclusive culture requires engagement from all colleagues, senior leaders need to be on board and able to openly demonstrate their support for developing inclusion.  

In larger organisations this might include having a senior leader responsible for over-seeing improvements in this area and reporting on this to others in the senior leadership. In smaller organisations, being a leader who shares personal experiences and models an inclusive way of working will demonstrate a commitment to an inclusive culture.  

Leaders who have disabilities could consider being open about them as this will encourage others to adopt a similar outlook, but be wary of societal expectations placed on any under-represented or marginalised group to be a role model. Do not have this as your only way to tell stories and represent diversity.

Policies  

• Have a clear policy on reasonable adjustments. Involve colleagues affected when drafting and amending your policies. 
• Equality Impact Assessments ("EIA") can be a powerful tool in policy and process development. Consider using them to help develop processes even if you aren’t legally required to do them. If you would like more detailed advice about conducting EIAs these resources can be helpful: Inclusive Employers - Equality Impact assessments a definitive guide. The Equality and Human Rights Commission also has information which is aimed at the public sector, Assessing impact and the equality duty: an eight step guide 
• Review all policies to ensure that they are consistent with each other, and that accessibility is a core part of each one. For example,  travel policies should have flexible options available to best suit the needs of individual colleagues, rather than setting strict requirements around the mode of travel, over-night accommodation etc.  
• Make requesting adjustments available to all your staff and colleagues, regardless of whether they have a disability or not. This helps to remove any stigma around requesting adjustments and will assist everyone in doing their jobs. This may be particularly important to those experiencing chronic or recurrent illnesses which might not be considered disabled. For example endometriosis that can be treated as a disability, but it isn’t always. Ensuring all colleagues can request adjustments would be a useful strategy to make workplaces more inclusive for all. 

Conversations  

• Ask colleagues, what they may need to support their working environment and make things easier for them. 
• Make sure disabled colleagues affected are consulted when developing and changing policies and ensure their voice is taken into account. 
• Support managers to have sensitive discussions about disability and neurodivergence.  

Celebrate

Celebrate disability and neurodivergence as part of your inclusion calendar (For example,. International Day of Persons with Disabilities, World Autism Awareness Day, World Hearing Day etc. The particular dates your organisation selects should be guided by your workforce and client-base).  

In the event that problems emerge, and ableism, bias and other issues are identified, ensure that these are dealt with fairly, quickly and robustly.  ACAS has guidance on tackling bullying and discrimination which you may find helpful. 

Training  

• Ensure that everyone undertaking training has the time to do so and consider making it mandatory. 
• If colleagues want to lead training sessions, learning from lived experience is extremely powerful. However, do not require disabled colleagues to lead sessions – it should be their choice.
  
• Many charities can offer information and training in specific disabilities instead, so consider bringing in external organisations. 
• People managers should receive training on supporting disabled colleagues ideally before they begin managing people for the first time. This should be regularly updated to take account of changes and developments.