Access still denied to disabled workers

Disability diversity

Disability campaigners say their cause is being drowned out by a cacophony of more popular diversity issues like race and gender. Matt Henkes investigates whether this is the case and how they can make themselves heard within organisations.


Diversity is in danger of becoming such an ominous and unwieldy term that some facets may be in jeopardy of slipping below the radar. And with disability arguably the most complicated and least publicised of such issues, is it surprising lobbyists complain it is losing out to more straightforward targets like race and gender?

Around 7 million people of working age in the UK have some kind of disability – that's almost one in five, though only half of these are in work. In 2006, the Office of National Statistics reported that up to 1.2m disabled people were available and wanting to work. So why aren't they?

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Editor's Welcome

 

Hello! And welcome back as we enter 2012, with a busy year ahead of us all. With talk of double-dip recessions, a possible partial or even full break-up of the Eurozone and unemployment rates set to hit nearly 9%, topics such as organisational streamlining, staff resilience and talent management are likely to be on many an HR professional's lips over the next 12 months.
 
But to lighten the gloom here in the UK, we also have the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and its attendant public holidays to look forward to at the start of June. Followed by two weeks of Olympic Games from 27 July to 12 August and the Paralympics from 29 August to 9 September, each generating their own excitement, but also issues to work through for hard-pressed HR departments trying to sort out the multifarious staffing issues in advance.
 
So with an interesting but challenging year to come, HRZone promises to be with you, supporting you all the way and providing our usual insightful blend of news, analysis, community blogs and expert comment to help you sort the wheat from the chaff. As ever, we love to hear from you too so feel free to either post your words of wisdom to our blog section yourself or, in the case of longer, more in-depth ‘expert voice’ articles, drop me a line with any ideas to cath.everett@siftmedia.co.uk.....
 
Cath Everett
HRZone Editor 
 
 
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