Ensure you are aware of the support that is available to help businesses to employ disabled people. For example, the Access to Work scheme could meet much of the cost of any adjustments (including assistive technology) to enable a disabled person to perform the job.
Before advertising a job, it is good practice to write a job description and person specification for that job, making them fair and non-discriminatory.
Consider wording your job adverts in a way that will attract more diverse applicants, including disabled people. For example, you could say that you welcome applications from all sections of the community, including disabled people.
If you can offer flexible working arrangements (e.g. part-time work, job-sharing, flexible hours, etc) saying this in the advertisement may attract applications from people who are good candidates but unable to work normal full-time hours. You may be asked to put job application forms in different formats like large print.
Ensure you are aware of the support that is available to help businesses
Ask all short-listed candidates if they have any special access or other requirements before they attend for interview.
Consider offering work-trials to disabled people, including those who have mental health conditions. Many are capable of working but may have no recent work experience. This is usually because of many employers' reluctance to offer them an opportunity, even after they have received treatment and, often, re-training. Work-trials give you and the potential employee an opportunity to see whether the person is suitable for the job.
Think flexibly, there are often lots of different ways to do a job, so be open-minded to new ways of doing things. Examples include job sharing, part-time working, allowing a disabled person to sit down while doing certain tasks or allowing several short breaks rather than one long one. Don't make assumptions about what people can and can't do. Some people may be able to do a job if you make some basic adjustments. This could be altering the job or workplace.
If you are unsure whether a disabled person can do a job, talk to them about how they might perform certain tasks and what adjustments you might make to enable them to do the job, or do it better.
More detailed information on all these matters (including information about Access to Work) can be found in the Fact sheet section of this website. Local contact details for Access To Work (and other useful local organisations) are also listed in The Sussex Disability Employment Directory which can be accessed via the Disability Directory Page.
