Today marks the start of UK Disability History Month. This is a time when statistics are collected on the number of disabled people there are in the country as well as information to look at how different trends as to how they are affected through the employment system have changed over time. According to the latest data, there are just over five million disabled people in the country. People who have any form of disability, have always found some way of surviving in society. This could be through begging, employment or through charity or welfare. The number of disabled people has begun to increase in the UK workforce. This is due to the fact that there are increased forms of help and support which are on offer to make the work place a more accessible place for them to manage and be in. There are benefits such as Access to Work which provide funding to help make adaptations to different work premises to help make them more accessible to those with disabilities. Facilities such as ramps can be added to help those who are in wheelchairs enter or exit buildings which were before seen as a place which were out of bounds to them. This helps them to fulfil their full potential and earn a living for themselves to help them regain their independence.
Funding can also be made available for them to employ their own support worker or personal assistant who can help them with tasks that they have difficulty in managing on their own. This helps to improve the element of equality in the employment industry and avoids any unnecessary legal action being taken due to claims of discrimination or prejudice. Since 2013, there has been a general ongoing trend which has seen disability employment being looked at in a positive way. There had been a strong growth in the number of people being employed which has helped to narrow the gap between the rate of disabled and non-disabled people in employment. This is more commonly known as the disability employment gap and the narrowing of the differential numbers of disabled and non-disabled people being employed proves more is being done to help them feel fully accepted in society.
During the pandemic when we were all advised to work from home when and where possible, there was initially a reversal of these trends which meant that there were fewer disabled people in employment, however the latest quarterly data which illustrate statistics from April to June 2023 shows there has been a 1% increase since 2019.
There were 5.1 million disabled people in employment in the UK in Q2 2023. This is an increase of 320,000 on the year and an overall increase of 2.2 million since the same quarter in 2013
The disability employment rate was 53.6% in Q2 2023, compared to 82.5% for non-disabled people. For disabled people, there is an increase of 0.6 percentage points on the year and an overall increase of 10.0 percentage points since the same quarter in 2013.
There are a number of ways in which people can get involved this month to help improve equality for disabled people and champion the anti-discrimination message. This could be through helping to develop the UKDHM website which will help to provide publicity and resources for those who are disabled and need help and support to manage their every day lives. Organisations can also apply to become an affiliate and help spread the message as far and wide as possible. During these difficult times, they aim to be as flexible as possible so the have come up with a system of rates which aim to be suitable for everyone. This includes:
Please note that the higher figure is what we would like to receive, but we thought that in these tough economic times we should provide a lower, minimum affiliation fee to be more flexible.
National Organisations Large £250–£500
National Organisations Small £100–£200
Local Trade Union Branches £50–£100
National Disability People’s Organisations £50–£100
Local DPOS- NGO’s £15–£25
Individuals Waged £10
Individuals Unwaged and Students £3
If you’d like to know other ways you can get involved in UK Disability History Month, please visit:
