Cardiff Business School - Breakfast Briefing with Prof Debbie Foster
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Will the new ‘normal’ be a disability inclusive working environment?
A post currently circulating on facebook reads: “Things Covid has proven. 1. The job you were told couldn’t be done remotely can be done remotely. 2. Many disabled workers could have been working from home, but corporations just didn’t want them to.”
This briefing examines why, prior to the threat of Covid-19, employers were reluctant to facilitate home-working as a commonly requested reasonable adjustment by disabled employees. It will draw on findings from a survey carried out in July/ August 2020 in partnership with The Law Society of England & Wales. This asked disabled legal professionals about their experiences of working during and coming out of lockdown. What organisations need to consider to build disability inclusive workplaces of the future will then be considered, including how the experiences of disabled people, many of whom already had expertise in remote and flexible working prior to lockdown, can be harnessed.
Debbie Foster (Professor of Employment Relations & Diversity) and Dr Natasha Hirst (Independent Disability Researcher) will open the session. They will provide some background to the recent Covid-19 survey, which was conducted following the publication in January 2020 of a report: ‘Legally Disabled?: The Career Experiences of Disabled People Working in the Legal Profession’ (see: www.legallydisabled.com). This placed a spotlight on talented and ambitious disabled people and outdated working practices that impeded their progression. Research was chosen for funding by Disability Wales and was a unique partnership between Cardiff University academics and the group representing disabled lawyers within the Law Society, who will contribute to the session.
Links to additional resources developed by the project will be signposted during the session and include reports and recommendations on developing more disability inclusive working practices as well as personal profile interviews with disabled professionals that were created using Cardiff Business School public value funds.
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