Inclusive workplaces

An inclusive workplace is a place where everyone feels respected and included.

It means all employees are valued equally, whether they have a disability or not.

Make sure your recruitment processes are accessible for everyone. This means using easy to understand language in your job descriptions and contracts and removing parts of the process that discriminate, like testing in the interview process.

Make sure everyone is paid fairly for their work.

Many people with intellectual disabilities are paid less than people without disabilities for doing the same job. Some countries even have laws that make it legal to pay people with disabilities less than other people. This is discrimination.

Make sure your policies at your organization do not all people with intellectual disabilities to be paid less because of their disability. Make sure your payscales do not allow disability as a reason for pay variation.

Make sure your organisation’s aims and values are accessible and easy to understand.

Make sure your key documents and policies are in plain language or an easy read format so that every employer in your workplace can access and understand them.

Make sure that everyone enters a new job on an equal playing field.

When training for new staff is not fully accessible and inclusive, a new employee with an intellectual disability is excluded from the start.

Make all of your training for new staff fully accessible - in person training is better than virtual so that people can ask questions.

Consider creating additional tools for new employees like a document explaining the roles of others at the workplace so they can feel welcome and see how they fit into their new team from the beginning.

Make sure there is zero tolerance of bullying or harassment at your organisation.

Provide training to all employees on diversity and inclusion, including around how to give good support to colleagues.

People with intellectual disability are the best people to lead this training as they can share their own experience. Local self-advocacy groups can help to deliver this.

Make sure all internal and external communication is accessible and easy to understand.

In a workplace, this means everyone should write their emails in plain language, staff newsletters should be fully accessible, and staff meetings must also use plain language and go at a pace where everyone can be included.

You can read more about this in our communication and accessible information sections.

Be flexible about how people can do their jobs. For example, some people might need flexible working hours or more time to learn new tasks.

This is called reasonable accommodation. It is every person's right to ask for adjustments that they need to do their job well.

Make sure people have good support from their managers and colleagues so they can do their job well.

Support is the extra help that a person may need to do a task, understand information, or develop skills.

People with intellectual disabilities may need extra support at work to:

learn new skills
understand information
communicate with other people

The best people to support people with intellectual disabilities at work are their managers and colleagues.

Most types of support are just small adjustments that any colleague can deliver - for example, managers and colleagues can support an employee to manage their tasks and time by using an accessible workplan template (template below).

Regularly check in with all employees how they are feeling and if they need more support or adaptations.

Measure how well you are doing at employing people with disabilities in your organisation.

Make a plan to employ more people if you are not doing well.