Charles Bloch thought he had the same potential as all the other graduates with a first class diploma when he started looking for marketing jobs after university.
But, thousands of requests later, he failed to get a position. His lack of success, he said, had nothing to do with his academic capacity. It was rather his handicap: a serious impairment of sight.
After an interview experience, when he was immediately out of the building, he ceased to disclose his handicap on the candidacies and started to leave his cane and his dog guides behind. Bloch, who describes his vision as being constantly out of attention, remembers having said to many recruiters at the end of an interview: “My handicap is not a problem. I can do it.”
Bloch is not alone. With fewer positions announced and often a large number of graduates applying For everyone, disabled job seekers are particularly affected. The average British employer received 140 requests by graduate vacancyA 30 -year file and an increase of 59% of the previous year, the Institute for student employers, an organization of companies and educational establishments, found in 2024.
The disabled labor courts are faced with more challenges than their non -disabled peers and, on average, must submit 60% additional applications. According to the disability carary scope, only about half of the half guarantees an interview, compared to two thirds of the candidates without depreciation.
They are disadvantaged as More than half of employers say they are concerned about the capacity of a disabled employee to do the work, noted the charitable organization, while 37% People with disabilities believe that companies will avoid hiring them. These statistics even come as most Large companies in the United Kingdom claim to support policies of diversity, equity and inclusion.
In the United States, the Trump administration accumulates on companies that kiss ValuesThe programs which in recent years have led to more inclusive workplace. Washington increases the pressure on businesses elsewhere, as in Europe and the United KingdomTo follow his example and respect a decree prohibiting DEI programs, if they are suppliers or service providers to the United States government.
“Companies say they cannot discriminate, but who is watching for this?” Request Bloch, adding that often recruiters have a particular unable person type in mind, but “when they see someone with a handicap, they can't help but think that they are not going into this box”.
Handicapped job seekers can find it difficult for the request process. Sami Dar, who suffers from cerebral paralysis and uses a wheelchair, says that his handicap meant that he was taking behind his peers to find a job because he did not have time to produce “the quantity or quality of applications” necessary because routine tasks take more time.
In 2022, DAR founded 10,000 capable trainees, a program in the United Kingdom which provides internships to people with disabilities or long-term health conditions. “I had a lot to offer, but I had trouble making a chance to prove it,” he says.
British employers are bound by the 2010 equality law to make reasonable adjustments For people with disabilities. These could be something from hybrid technology to assistance technology, but says DAR, such adaptations are often not a priority. Employers “are so focused on production and profit that they have less capacity to consider my needs as an individual,” he said. Adequate adjustments are often overlooked, he said, which has meant miss many work events, such as weekends and social occasions in team consolidation.
The lack of a recruiter to make adjustments, such as additional time, prevents many disabled people from completing compulsory tasks in the request process. An undeniable 22 -year -old engineering student, who spoke under the guise of anonymity, says that she failed to finish the evaluations of her placement year at the time when her additional minutes requests remained unanswered.
It urges companies to rethink their additional needs processes. “I am just as capable as any student and I was very eager to apply for the roles I have played,” she said. “These companies cannot be called” equal opportunities for employers “if they have recruitment systems that discriminate people like me.”
David Clarke, who is blind, is general manager of the British Paralympic Association. He says that discrimination begins with an “experience deficit”, where disabled people often have a gap in their CVS because they do not have the same possibilities of internships, work experience or diplomas.
Georgina Inson, recruitment manager of the Simmons and Simmons international law firm, says companies must be “as clear as possible” on the adaptation of reasonable adjustments. It recommends that companies present their success stories in relation to the hiring of disabled candidates, which will encourage others to apply. “A constant reassessment is important for if there are things that people are mistaken, they can be addressed,” she said.
