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In May this year, it was reported that of the 8.4 million disabled people of working age in the UK, just 53.6% are currently in work. This is compared to 81.7% of people who are not disabled. As a result, the disability employment gap has increased over the last year from 28.1 percentage points to 28.8 percentage points. With a high level of redundancies throughout the pandemic, the disabled community were more likely to be made redundant than non-disabled people.
The government has made a target of getting one million more disabled people into employment by 2027, but how can this target be reached?

Assistive technology
In our everyday work lives, it can be easy to take for granted how easy it is for us to go about our jobs. For the disabled community, there can be barriers which prevent them from finding it this easy. Life-changing technology is being created every year, and this could be a key aspect of driving employment rates of the disabled community. Ensuring that specialised assistive technology (AT) and software are made available in the workplace will in turn create a more inclusive environment. These types of technologies enhance the independence of disabled people by allowing them to go about their daily work without difficulty. This assistive technology doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult to implement, it can be as simple as using caption software on videos or voice over applications on smartphones.
Sarah Newton, Minister for Disabled People, Health & Work said that “technological advances hold the most enormous potential for disabled people and those with health conditions” and The Department for Work and Pensions is keen to make best use of this technology.

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