What will it take to make our workplaces truly inclusive of disabled people?
The road to meaningful disability inclusion at work feels like a long and bumpy one.
Despite 83% of all acquired disabilities occurring while in work, the world of employment still struggles to open its doors fully to our working disabled population. In the UK’s TV industry, disabled talent represents around 6% of the off-screen workforce (CDN 2022). This is well below the UK average, where disabled people make up 17% of the workforce.
The data from the 2022 CDN/Diamond Disability Deep Dive also projects that the UK’s TV industry needs more than 13,519 additional disabled people to bring it into line with the wider UK workforce, which could take 20 years to achieve at the current rate of progress.
So, how does the industry even begin to achieve this goal?
The first thing is to recognise that it is not as simple as just advertising jobs or running training in the hope you’ll attract disabled candidates. There is a big piece of work around the culture and accessibility of our workspaces that needs to be done before disabled talent feel that they can take up production work.
Our recent #DisabilityUnfiltered campaign demonstrated the uphill battle that many disabled people face when trying to find employment. Ableist attitudes, fear, stigma, lack of education and unconscious biases are all barriers to getting hired and being truly valued, trusted and equally treated in the workplace. You can check the stats out here.
What’s clear is that it is not enough for hiring managers and company leaders to say they have an inclusive company. They need a level of disability fluency which means unconscious bias training, accessibility and best language practices are woven into the every-day fabric of the organisation, and are not an afterthought or add on.
Organisations like Disability Rights UK offer awareness training and consultancy on things like HR policy and accessibility, as does the charity Astriid in relation to chronic illness and long term health conditions. Similarly, companies like Ideally Consulting help broadcasters, production companies and other communication industries build strategies to help tell authentic stories and connect with their audiences; from their branding and communications, to their content.
And at Gritty Talent we help you assess your current diversity and inclusion state of play using our Inclusion Accelerator tool - so that you know what actions or changes to prioritise first, in order to become a really attractive workspace for talent from all backgrounds.
Of course, getting talent in the door is only the first step. Nurturing that talent and providing the tools to progress and thrive is the next step, if we’re to tackle the lack of progress in off-screen senior roles held by people with disabilities, which fell from 6.6% in 2016-17 to 4.5% in 2020-21. Retention, upskilling and career progression have never been more important for the UK TV & Film industry - particularly with a growing skill gaps across genres and an overall talent pipeline shortfall of 21,000 people by 2025, according to ScreenSkills.
If we look back at the earlier stat of needing to recruit 13,519 disabled people in order to reach decent representation of the UK working population - we can see where the 21,000 shortfall might have come from - and how to correct it. Two thirds of our missing workforce might be from disabled groups. By investing in the careers and full inclusion of disabled talent, we can see how both the UK skill gaps and disability employment gap become easier to close.
As Asta Philpot, one of our #DisabilityUnfiltered campaign leads says, “People need to have the guts to actually take on someone and say ‘you know what? This person’s got talent and I’m going to believe in them - I’m going to put them where they need to be.”
Culture change in how we hire and assess talent isn’t going to be easy, but it is not rocket science either. The tools and processes for creating really accessible cultures are out there, and so is the talent.
Gritty Talent is committed to driving this change in practical ways and connecting fantastic talent with production companies. Email us on production@grittytalent.tv for more information on finding talent and assessing your current inclusion practices.
If you’re disabled and either working in TV looking for your next role, or thinking of entering the industry, we can help you find your next opportunity. Head to https://www.grittytalent.tv/off-screentalent and fill out the form!
For more resources for your production, check out https://www.grittytalent.tv/disability.
