COMMENT According to government data, more than one in five of the UK population has a disability. As an employer, this represents a significant pool of talent and, as a business, a huge proportion of current and potential customers, both of which represent substantial value.
Often, people ignore the needs of those living with disabilities through lack of thought rather than intent. They say, “That will never work in our organisation,” and then carry on. But the changes we’ve all lived through over the past year, with people working in such different ways and places, have proved that we can be a lot more flexible when we think creatively.
Listening to people who are confronting barriers, I often hear an overwhelming desire for independence, to not have to rely on anyone. A helping hand is always appreciated but it would be far better if people could get by on their own, without needing help of any description.
During Covid, we’ve had fascinating conversations with expert organisations on the new challenges from social distancing and rules for people with pan-disabilities. At British Land, our whole ethos is to pull together their amazing ideas and share them across our sites. Removing barriers to people with disabilities has benefits for the broader society and could bring UK businesses an estimated £2bn a month.
Representatives from the Royal National College for the Blind, near our Old Market shopping centre in Hereford, explained that assistance dogs always work on the left of the client, so we think about that for our one-way systems. They talked about how we can make sure signage is at the right level and use colours that people with visual impairment can see. There are so many lessons out there to be learnt, but we’ll only do this by listening to people and including them in our thought processes.
Reaching full potential
The most important thing to do for ability inclusion is to have conversations and listen. That’s a rule of thumb for life. Taking even a small amount of time is hard when everybody’s busy, but it’s so valuable. If you give people the chance to talk, they feel included. The benefit works both ways – when people are included it has positive impacts on their mental health, improves self-esteem and supports productivity, while diverse and inclusive teams give companies different points of view and additional experience.
Using our in-house Accessible Technology Guide, we work with our people to identify any additional needs relating to their use of IT tools. Through a small investment of time and equipment, we can often transform how people feel about their work, removing stress created by new or additional responsibilities. This means we have a motivated workforce who can reach their full potential. I’m constantly amazed at people’s fortitude to manage things without talking about them.
Positive mindset
Business leaders have the potential to change the way people see disability and move this to a more positive mindset. When British Land signed up to the Valuable 500 global movement, we saw this as a great opportunity to work with international business leaders to share best practice, keep our focus on ability inclusion and celebrate the good work we’ve done so far.
We’re really challenging ourselves to be creative about designing places for customers with a range of requirements, making our properties inclusive places to work, shop, live and play. I’m particularly excited about our new Office Design Guide, which will help shape the inclusive workplace of the future, right from how we welcome people into our buildings to the communal spaces, breakout areas, washrooms, recreational facilities and outside spaces. There is so much we can all do to create places where people of all abilities can thrive.
Ginny Warr is head of procurement at British Land and chair of enaBLe (BL’s disability awareness employee network)
