Making Your Production Disability-Inclusive

From recruitment through to everyday work and career progression, disabled people in the broadcast industry experience a lot of discrimination and inequality. There are steps you can take to better understand the barriers and make your workplace more inclusive for people with disabilities.

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Improve your hiring practices​

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You can widen the reach of your talent search. Put out calls on open platforms rather than private Facebook groups, or reach out to specialist agencies that can broaden your talent pool.

Pact has advice on hiring disabled talent, and lists lots of websites that advertise disabled talent for TV and film production.

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You may also find AbilityNet’s webinar on how to do inclusive, accessible recruitment useful.

When it comes to employment length, short-term contracts particularly disadvantage disabled workers. Frequent moves between contracts can make it harder for workers and managers to make reasonable adjustments. Longer-term contracts increase the employment and career opportunities for disabled workers.

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Make sure disabled workers have equal access to training and career opportunities​

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Make sure your training is accessible fairly, and make sure disabled people have access to mentors and role models. Only half of the disabled people interviewed for our research rated their access in these areas as equal to that of peers who do not identify as disabled (45% for on-the-job training, 55% for off-the-job training/qualifications).

You may find AbilityNet’s webinar on tips and tools for supporting disabled people in training and work useful.

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Improve disability knowledge in your organisation​

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In order to become disability inclusive and draw on the wealth of talent disabled people offer, dedicated knowledge is key. We offer training to help employers get up to speed with hiring and employing disabled talent. You can contact us for details on booking.

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Don’t be afraid to talk about disability, and be open to learning. Ask disabled workers about how they’ll approach their job, and put them in charge of how their work should be delivered. Unfair assumptions and a reluctance from others to talk about disability came up as frequent issues for disabled people in our research.

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“It is often presumed that I cannot manage my workload, and people make decisions for me. I would like to somehow explain how I can do my job before others decide I can’t.”

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“They fear bringing up the “D” disabled word (fear of offending, I suspect), so I can’t reassure them or correct any misconceptions. I feel these are the biggest lost opportunities.”