Can You Afford NOT To Employ A Disabled Person?

Disabled people contribute to success. In a small business, there is nowhere to hide. More than half-a-million disabled workers currently work for successful small businesses.[1] 9 out of 10 SME employers believed that disabled employees are just as productive as non-disabled staff.[2] Ensuring that the right people are in the right roles with the right support is the important thing-no making groundless assumptions and, as a result, missing out on talent and support that you as an employer need.
Many disabled people can work and do want to work. There are 3.4 million people with a disability or long-term health condition working in the UK. Over 1 million disabled people want to join them![3]
The average cost for making an adjustment so that a disabled person can bring their talents to your organisation is less than £76.00.[4] Many disabled people can work alongside their non-disabled employees without any, or with very little, adjustments being made. Other disabled people may need some adjustments but very usually these are straightforward. Any necessary adjustment usually costs peanuts and many are free. There's help available too from Access to Work who will help pay for equipment, travel and other forms of support. The Access to Work grant is up to 100 per cent of the approved costs for someone who is starting a job with you. Access to Work
If you don't employ disabled people, how are you going to meet the needs of one-sixth of your customer base? There are over 10 million disabled people in the UK who could be using your services or being your customers. Having a diverse workforce gives you a chance to meet the needs of a diverse range of customers.
Trust Drives Sales. Make your service or business more representative of the community and foster a better public image as a trustworthy employer.
Help attract the ever-more choosy graduates. Improve staff morale and loyalty to an employer who is considered representative and inclusive.[5]
Disabled Graduates. In 2005 over 188,000 fulltime, first degree students graduated from UK universities. Of this number approximately 7% (13,960) identified themselves as having either a disability or learning difficulty. Ensure your advertising reaches disabled graduates.[6]

'Towards Inclusion - Civil Rights for Disabled People' Annex 3, Department of Works and Pensions.
Small Employers' Attitudes to Disability. A survey of 1,000 small employers in Britain conducted by Opinion Research Business for the DRC.
UK's Office for National Statistics' Labour Force Survey, Winter 2004.
'Impact on Small Businesses of lowering the DDA Part II threshold', Disability Rights Commission (DRC), 2001.
'Corporate Ethics Catching On', The Times, 26 July, 2005.
AGCAS (Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services) What Happens Next