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This toolkit was developed as a resource for the SMEs we work with. It aims to:

highlight the benefits of recruiting disabled people

provide information that will enable them to adopt inclusive recruitment processes

highlight good practice so they feel confident in their ability to support disabled students and graduates in the workplace

We hope it offers reassurance that many adjustments can be made very easily; providing a flexible schedule of working hours may be all that is necessary to employ someone with a disability.

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The toolkit includes a guide on how to support people with disabilities in the workplace, including examples of adjustments that support disabled employees and tips on how to ensure every candidate has an equal footing in the recruitment process.

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The law (Equality Act 2010) says that Employers must make Reasonable Adjustments in the workplace to make sure workers with disabilities, or physical or mental health conditions*, are not substantially disadvantaged when doing their role.

This applies to:

anyone who works for an employer

contractors and self-employed people hired to personally do the work

job applicants

*There is no need for a person to establish a medically diagnosed cause for their impairment. What it is important to consider is the effect of the impairment, not the cause

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Reasonable adjustments are changes an employer makes to remove or reduce a disadvantage related to someone's disability.

For example:

Making changes to the workplace,

Changing someone's working arrangements

What ‘Reasonable’ means

What is reasonable depends on each situation. The employer must consider carefully if the adjustment

will remove or reduce the disadvantage

is practical to make

is affordable

could harm the health and safety of others

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application forms

interview arrangements

aptitude or proficiency tests

job offers

terms of employment, including pay

promotion, transfer, and training opportunities

dismissal or redundancy

discipline and grievances

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When recruiting staff, an employer is allowed to make limited enquiries about a person’s health or disability.

They can only ask about a person’s health or disability:

to help decide if they can carry out a task that is an essential part of the work

to help find out if they can take part in an interview

to help decide if the interviewers need to make reasonable adjustments for a person in a selection process

to help monitoring

if they want to increase the number of disabled people they employ

if they need to know for the purposes of national security checks

It is important to note that failure to provide reasonable adjustments is a specific form of discrimination outlined in the Equality Act (2010).

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When a candidate discloses a disability, it can help to be positive about what they can do, and what would help them in the workplace.

The candidate may already know what adjustments have worked for them in the past and the best ways that an employer can support them.

Remember, the employee will know their condition and what they need more than anyone else

If a candidate seems worried about disclosing their disability, it may help to share examples of how you have supported other people in the workplace that have been in a similar position.

This searchable database of disability stories from the workplace may be a useful resource if this is your first experience of supporting a disabled candidate

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Inspiring Stories from Club Members | Faces of My Plus Students’ Club

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We know how difficult it can be with a disability, to find a career you love. Read the success stories of students and graduates who are enjoying a rewarding career.

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use premises that are fully accessible and inform candidates of this e.g., the availability of disabled parking.

change lighting or room layout.

show a visually impaired applicant to their seat.

offer an alternative to a standard interview, for example a working interview or allow extra time.

if the candidate needs support during the interview such as a BSL interpreter, allow them to bring them to the interview.

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In Scotland, the Workplace Equality Fund helps reduce employment inequalities and support disabled people into work. It is funded by the Scottish Government and administrated by Advice Direct Scotland.

Employers, both public and private, can apply for funds. However, this application must include a third sector partner (e.g., a registered charity) that has knowledge and experience of the equality issue.

Funding can help with promoting progressive practices in recruitment, increasing organisation’s understanding of the challenges faced by disabled people and taking practical steps to overcome them and creating more inclusive working environments.

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SMEs can apply for part-funding to employ a student or graduate through the Exploring Entrepreneurship SME Internship Programme

Advertise your vacancies for free to reach students and graduates (graduates can access the vacancy platform for 5 years after graduation)

Strathclyde alumni can access entrepreneurial support to accelerate and grow your business

We can also discuss ways to raise your profile with students/graduates. This might be through participating in careers fairs, presentations or offering student projects. Please get in touch with our Employer Engagement Team if you would like to discuss this further

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UK Gov guidance on employing disabled people and people with health conditions

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UK Gov guidance on employing disabled people and people with health conditions

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UK Gov Guidance on Employing disabled people and people with health conditions

The benefits of employing disabled people

Over 7.7 million people of working age in the UK are disabled or have a health condition. Historically there has been a significant gap between the proportion of disabled people employed compared with non-disabled people.

Encouraging applications from disabled people is good for business. It can help you to:

increase the number of high quality applicants available

create a workforce that reflects the diverse range of customers it serves and the community in which it is based

bring additional skills to the business, such as the ability to use British Sign Language (BSL), which could result in large savings

The costs of making reasonable adjustments to accommodate disabled employees are often low.

The benefits of retaining an experienced, skilled employee who has acquired an impairment are usually greater than recruiting and training new staff. It is also good for the individual.

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The Health Adjustment Passport (HAP) is a document that can help to identify support or reasonable adjustments that a candidate may require in the workplace due to a health condition or disability.

It covers several aspects of support including travel to work, accessing work premises, the need for specialist equipment or IT and various types of support worker.

It also provides information on how to apply for an Access to Work grant

Health Adjustment Passport

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The Inclusive Recruitment Guide from Skills Development Scotland provides information on how to ensure your interviews are inclusive.

It covers:

Before the interview

Conducting your interview

Making your interview accessible

Tips for virtual interviews

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Access to Work is a publicly funded employment support grant scheme that aims to support disabled people start or stay in work.

It can provide practical and financial support for people who have a disability or physical or mental health condition.

Support can be provided where someone needs support or adaptations beyond reasonable adjustments.

This Access to Work factsheet for employers covers:

how it can help you (the employer)

the Access to Work Mental Health Support Service

who can get Access to Work

how much it could cost you (the employer)

how someone can claim

what happens subsequently

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This resource was developed by a graduate employed by the Careers & Employability Service (CES) through a pilot project to provide autistic and disabled students/graduates with paid work experience.

The project came about because the CES observed that a lack of work experience was presenting additional barriers for autistic and disabled students when job seeking. As there are no appropriate programmes we can refer autistic and disabled students/graduates to in order to gain paid work experience the CES initiated a pilot to address this.

Background on employment outcomes of disabled graduates

Research shows that graduates experience a disability employment gap (3.4% 15 months after graduation; 12.7% over the working lifespan)​

Autistic graduates are most likely to be unemployed and those who are in work are least likely to be in high skilled or permanent employment*​

*AGCAS What Happens Next 2025

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UK Gov resource: Recruitment and disabled people

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UK Gov resource: Recruitment and disabled people

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UK Gov resource: Recruitment and disabled people

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The employer is responsible for paying for any reasonable adjustments.

HOWEVER, through the Access to Work fund there is currently zero cost for small employers:

Employer Cost Share

For special aids and equipment there can be an employer cost share:

Small Employer (0-49): Zero Cost Share

Medium Employer (50 to 249): First £500 and 20%

Large Employer (250+): First £1000 and 20%

Any costs above £10,000 met by Access to Work*

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Access to Work (AtW) is a grant that supports people with a health condition or disability to overcome barriers at work.

NOTE: There will be no cost share if the application to Access to Work is made within 6 weeks of an employee starting employment.

NOTE: There may be a 20% cost share if there is a general business benefit, e.g. the business can now earn more money because of the equipment AtW has funded or the equipment can be used by other none disabled colleagues.

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UK Gov resource: Reasonable adjustments for workers with disabilities or health conditions

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UK Gov resource: Reasonable adjustments for workers with disabilities or health conditions

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UK Gov resource: Reasonable adjustments for workers with disabilities or health conditions

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The Inclusive Recruitment Guide from Skills Development Scotland provides information on how to ensure your job description and advert are inclusive.

It includes a checklist for inclusive job description adverts:

A clear and realistic overview of what the role will entail, removing any uneccesary criteria and using simple language

Person specification. Make role requirements clear and specific

Clear policies and benefits of working with you. e.g. annual leave allowance, pension contributions, people policies (maternity and paternity leave), well-being support, etc

Working options i.e role is available part-time, full-time or job share. Promote flexible working opportunities

Salary/salary bands (non-negotiable where possible)

Information on how to request reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process

Flexibility of interviews. Offer a range of dates and times for interviews. Consider offering virtual or face-to-face.

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Employers have a legal responsibility to support someone who tells them they have a disability and need adjustments.

This guide, from ACAS, covers:

How to handle a reasonable adjustment request

How to decide what reasonable adjustments are needed

Confirming reasonable adjustments (a template is provided)

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The Inclusive Recruitment Guide from Skills Development Scotland provides information on how to ensure your approach to shortlisting is inclusive.

It covers:

Strategies to reduce unconcious bias

The importance of a standardised process

Anonymous applications/recruitment

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When interviewing a disabled applicant, help them to perform to the best of their ability by:

speaking directly to them rather than any support worker.

try to ask direct and understandable questions rather than vague questions. If you ask a candidate an industry specific question, give them extra time to answer as they may need time to properly prepare their answer.

If the candidate does not seem to have a lot of work experience or has gaps in their education/work history allow them an opportunity to give a brief explanation for this. It may be that they have achieved the necessary skills through other means e.g., when managing their disability, they may have developed their ability to plan and organise through coordinating their doctor’s appointments around their university schedule or by working with the university’s Disability Services, they have advanced their ability to work effectively in a team.

ask the candidate to give actual examples to a question rather than asking them about a hypothetical situation/ scenario.

telling them about any flexible working patterns that you may be able to offer them.

making sure that you ask each applicant the same questions, whether they are disabled or not.

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The Inclusive Recruitment Guide from Skills Development Scotland provides information on how to make your employees welcome when they start.

It covers:

Before they start

Details on how you can support new and existing staff with reasonable adjustments

Buddies

Mentoring

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To develop a toolkit for SMEs that will support them to employ disabled students/graduates who require adjustments during the recruitment process and/or the workplace.

The Careers & Employability Service works closely with a wide variety of local SMEs (small and medium size businesses)

Scotland boasts large numbers of SMEs and start ups and a large proportion of our students and graduates will go on to work in an SME

This project focused on inspiring confidence in SMEs to recruit, interview and employ students or graduates who require reasonable adjustments in the workplace by providing them with a toolkit:

It should cover the firm’s responsibility in terms of the law and how to access any funds that are available to them in making adjustments

It should also explore what they can do as employers to proactively assist their employees and how they can prevent discrimination in their organisation

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Katrina Forbes

Head of Careers & Employability Service katrina.forbes@strath.ac.uk

Anna Selwood

Project Lead and Senior Careers Consultant

anna.selwood@strath.ac.uk

Gill Cowan

Project Supervisor and External Engagement Co-ordinator

gill.cowan@strath.ac.uk

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If online tests, or psychometric tests, are part of your recruitment process be aware that a disabled candidate may require adjustments.

There is no single adjustment that suits everyone.

This comprehensive guide to psychometric tests for disabled and neurodivergent applicants has been produced by the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) Disability Task Group

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We would love to know if you have found this Toolkit useful - please share you feedback by completing this short survey.

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Jamie Shields

Robbie Crow

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Visibility Scotland guide for supporting employees with vision impairment in the workplace

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Visibility Scotland guide for supporting employees with vision impairment in the workplace

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Employers are responsible for supporting and implementing reasonable adjustments to ensure employees with vision impairment can work equally alongside others.

This guide produced by Visibility Scotland provides useful advice, examples of good practice and further support