Employer attitudes toward employing disabled people

Employers were asked a range of questions in order to find out more about the qualities they looked for in potential employees, what they thought were the barriers to the employment of disabled people, about their attitudes towards disabled people, how they thought staff and customers perceived disabled staff and to what extent they were influenced in their employment decisions by the reactions of others.

Overall, there appears to be an apparent `hierarchy’ of disability where the type and severity of the impairment does appear to have an impact on employers’ perception of the employability of disabled people, regardless of whether someone is perceived as being capable of doing a job or not.

It appears that perceptions about how staff, customers and clients might react might be giving employers social permission not to hire disabled people.

The research was carried out by Point Research Ltd. It was completed in November 2012.

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The Disability Confident campaign launched in 2016 supports employers to hire and retain disabled employees. The campaign includes information and resources.

Find out more information about the Disability Confident campaign .