This post is the first of our series of blogs we have from our Micro-Interns. These are students from Oxford University who took part in a 5-day internship with Avalis to find out more about disability employment, research issues and possible solutions and then produce things that we can take into our work to help create positive change.
This post is from Sophie Cundall who looked specifically at organisations working to achieve similar aims and potential partnerships, we hope you enjoy this and if you'd like to read more of these please click on the tag "micro-interns":
My Week with Avalis: Towards better Diversity and Inclusion Programmes.
Sophie Cundall
As a non-disabled person, I, like many of us, had some idea that disability exclusion and discrimination was a problem that still existed. I will honestly admit, though, that my week at Avalis as a commercial partnerships intern opened my eyes in a way I hadn’t expected. As I conducted deep dives into companies and statistics, the sheer scale of the discrimination that disabled people face, especially in the workplace and when applying for jobs, became more and more shocking.
Having worked for the past 2 years for the LGBT+ charity Just Like Us, I am no stranger to discussions of marginalisation and discrimination. I am used to peoples’ comments that this kind of inequality can’t possibly still exist in 2020, that surely the fight is over, right? I am used to disagreeing with these comments, to quickly drafting a 10-minute presentation to give to someone over a pint in a pub about how discrimination and hate crimes, do, in fact, still exist, and are arguably getting worse.
But when I began my internship, I was shocked, quite naively, at some of the anecdotes and statistics that emerged regarding access to employment for disabled people. I had not quite understood the scale of inaccessibility in the job market, and felt for the first time on the other side of the discussions I usually have concerning Just Like Us. I was under no illusion that the fight was over, but I was equally quite simply unaware of the extent of the prevalence and complexity of the challenges disabled people face. Let alone if you are an LGBT+ disabled person, or a disabled person of colour. An intersectional lens makes the statistics even more overwhelming.
The last thing I’d like to do is centre myself in these stories. As a non-disabled person, working with Avalis has emphasised the importance of passing the mic, and ensuring that disabled people are heard, and not spoken for, not considered a monolithic group. The term disabled covers an entire spectrum of experiences and people, we must not exclude those with ‘invisible’ disabilities for example, or neurodivergent people. So for the rest of this article, I’d like to expand on some of my findings in my research for potential partners and companies. I’d also like to boost the profiles of some of the bloggers, influencers, podcasts that I discovered when I suggested Avalis try Guerilla Marketing tactics, and subsequently created a strategy.
What do you think of when you hear the, overly corporate, terms ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ (D&I)? Perhaps you think of gender pay gaps, of how much less women in the same jobs as men earn per hour. Perhaps you think of LGBT+ inclusion, making sure that everyone feels comfortable to ‘come out’ in the workplace, to be authentically themselves. Perhaps you think of race and ethnic minorities, ensuring that no racial harassment is experienced, and a company is actively anti-racist. Perhaps you think of disability, making sure that workplaces are accessible and recruitment is diverse. Or do you? I would’ve liked to think that most people would immediately imagine disability inclusion as one of the vital pillars of D&I schemes and networks in companies of any size. I was shocked to find that, in actual fact, more often than not companies exclude disability from their initiatives and charters that aim to protect marginalised employees. A report by the (American) Return on Disability Group found that 90% of companies consider themselves invested in diversity and inclusion, but only 4% of these companies included disability in these initiatives.(https://hbr.org/2020/03/do-your-di-efforts-include-people-with-disabilities)
Statistically, it pays off to employ in an inclusive way: companies that employ disabled people have 89% higher retention rates, experienced a 72% increase in productivity, and a 29% increase in profitability (https://inclusively.com/for-employers). There is actual, researched evidence that accompanies the moral and ethical concerns of ensuring that your recruitment processes, work culture and employees themselves are diverse and inclusive. And yet, many of the highest performing companies with huge turnover and revenue continue to exclude disability from their D&I pillars. Disability, like race, sexuality, sex, religion, pregnancy and maternity etc, is a legally protected characteristic under the 2010 Equality Act. (https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/equality-act/protected-characteristics) And yet, it continues to be excluded from charters, initiatives and website pages where companies enumerate their diversity and inclusion policies. Some of these companies might have even won D&I awards.
It’s difficult to pin down an exact cause or reason why seemingly well-intentioned D&I departments might exclude disability from their initiatives. Ableism, budget and simple ignorance or lack of awareness might be some of the root causes. Whatever the case may be, this jarring exclusion is certainly being increasingly noticed and interrogated. As Marlee Matlin, the first deaf actress to win an oscar, points out “Diversity is a beautiful, absolutely wonderful thing, but I don’t think they consider people with disabilities, and deaf and hard-of-hearing people, as part of the diversity mandate.” (https://opensource.com/article/17/12/diversity-and-inclusion) It is vital that this changes, and I am so grateful and excited that as part of Avalis, even if only for a week, I have been able to be part of that change. Avalis will be at the forefront of holding companies accountable and ensuring disabled people are able to not only access employment, but thrive there. Whether as part of increasingly urgent corporate responsibility practices, or part of extended and comprehensive D&I programmes, or through partnerships with companies like Avalis, change must and will arrive.
Perhaps the key lies in emphasising the difference between diversity and inclusion, as Dana Brownlee says: ‘If diversity is a sprint, inclusion is a marathon. Each requires different training, conditioning and commitment.’ (Forbes article) Diversity refers to the presence of a variety of people, the involvement of a person of colour and woman on the executive board of a company, for example. Inclusion, however, is more complex; it refers to changing the very workplace culture of an organisation. There is Verna Myers’ famous quote: ‘diversity is being invited to the party, inclusion is being asked to dance.’To be an inclusive company, you need more than the simple presence of a diverse range of people; you need to challenge bias, accessibility and approaches in the workplace itself and amongst staff. You need to invite them in, properly include your marginalised groups of staff so that the workplace is well-adapted, a truly equal (and accessible) playing field. We have so much to learn from one another.
This is where Avalis and similar organisations come in. Through their disability awareness training programmes for existing staff, and programmes for disabled people seeking employment, these barriers should be broken down.
I want to dedicate the rest of this piece to resources that have helped me learn; inclusion starts with us. The more we read, the more we listen, the more we will strive to make workplaces we enter as diverse and inclusive as possible. Here’s a selection of some of the influencers, bloggers, books and podcasts I found during my research for Avalis’ guerilla marketing strategy. The variety of formats should make them as accessible as possible, reflecting the core mission of Avalis and disability inclusion initiatives.
Follow:
Ellen Jones, @ellen_jones: https://www.instagram.com/ellen__jones/
Malia Ellis: @maliasmovement: https://www.instagram.com/maliasmovement/
Shona Louise, @shonalouiseblog: https://www.instagram.com/shonalouiseblog/
Poppy Field, @p0ppyfield: https://www.instagram.com/p0ppyfield/
Imani Barbarin, @crutches_and_spice: https://www.instagram.com/crutches_and_spice/
Tess Daly, @tess.daly: https://www.instagram.com/tess.daly/
Keisha Grieves, @girlschronically_rock: https://www.instagram.com/girlschronically_rock/
Jameisha Prescod, @youlookokaytome: https://www.instagram.com/youlookokaytome/
Wesley Hamilton, @iamweshamilton: https://www.instagram.com/iamweshamilton/
Julia Rennie, @juliadayo: https://www.instagram.com/juliadayo/
Ryan J Haddad, @ryanjhaddad: https://www.instagram.com/ryanjhaddad/
@lostvoiceguy: https://www.instagram.com/lostvoiceguy/
Rosie Jones, @josierones: https://www.instagram.com/josierones/
Hermon and Heroda, @being_her: https://www.instagram.com/being__her/
Maya Spencer-Berkeley, @mbajsb: https://www.instagram.com/mbajsb/
Read:
Crippled: Austerity and the Demonisation of Disabled People, Frances Ryan.
Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, Ed. Alice Wong
The Reason I Jump, Naoki Higashida
Wonder, R.J. Palacio.
Pride Against Prejudice: Transforming Attitudes to Disability, Jenny Morris
Prognosis, Sarah Vallance.
Listen:
BBC Ouch Podcast
The Accessible Stall Podcast
The Guilty Feminist Podcast
The Disability Visibility Podcast
Honestly with Clemmie Telford Podcast
If my week with Avalis has taught me anything, it is that we could all do better. The constraints, additional costs and discrimination disabled people still face are unacceptable. From the potential £583 extra living costs a month, (Scope article) to the challenge of accepting jobs you may not be able to take because of a lack of accessible accommodation, the problem is far more extensive than many of us realise. I’m sure Avalis will change this, even one week working for this company has shown me there is hope, and ways of tackling this widespread, disturbing discrimination.
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