How your organisation could benefit from training staff in disability awareness

Providing disability awareness training for staff is as vital to any successful public-facing business as its management or marketing teams, yet for some reason, whether from ignorance or laziness, very few organisations will put in the required effort to reap the rewards that come from training staff in how to interact, accommodate, and provide a welcoming experience for disabled people. 

At Direct Access, we understand from years of experience in providing disability awareness training to businesses (20+!) why and how providing it can result in more satisfied customers, more well-rounded employees, an overall growth in customers and revenue, as well as significant mitigation of any legal risks that could come from disability discrimination. But before we get into the nitty-gritty of what disability awareness training is – it’s important to understand first what your partners and business stand to gain from committing to provide it.

In the modern workplace, regardless of your industry, diversity and inclusion are becoming more important by the day. This is largely due to both increased awareness of what living with a disability in the modern world means, as well as the new normal within the construction industry, which is to create accessible architecture and built environments by default. Doing this effectively saves costs for site owners and building managers, meaning that expensive changes do not need to be made retrospectively to keep up with the other factors in this conversation; law and legislation. As new building guidance related to disability is published and laws are updated, standards of access increase and the public expects more from the environments they interact with. It is therefore essential that businesses keep up with this standard if they want to survive and thrive, particularly as people are now living for much longer, and therefore much more likely to develop a disability in the twilight years of their lives. 

However, unlike retrospectively adding a wheelchair lift to your building, or replacing all of your desks with height-adjustable desks, disability awareness training can be offered at any stage during your business’ lifespan, and the rewards can be reaped immediately. Whether that comes in the form of learning some basic Level 1 sign language, understanding how to sight-guide individuals with visual impairments, or learning to recognise the various neurodivergent conditions or invisible disabilities that many of your customers or employees may live with. By undertaking training, you gain an understanding of all this, and could also gain a certification for being a Mental Health committed employer.

Worldwide, there is an estimated 1.3 billion people who experience significant disability. Overall, this represents 16% of the world population, which in turn represents a significant number of potential employees and customers that could interact with your business across its lifespan. Naturally, it is desirable to have satisfied customers, so if many of them are likely to have some form of disability, whether that’s mobility, cognitive, emotional, or otherwise – creating a supportive and welcoming environment for them increases the likelihood that they will interact with your business multiple times, either by spending money or even looking to join your team as an employee, which is also no bad thing for your business. This is especially important when we look at the number of disabled people in the workplace, which continues to rise year after year. There were 5.53 million working-age disabled people in employment from October to December 2023, an increase of 338,000 from October to December 2022. The employment rate of disabled people was 54.2%, up from 52.7% a year previously.

On the topic of money – despite stereotypes that may suggest otherwise, disabled communities have significant untouched income that they are willing to spend but don’t due to the inaccessibility of those businesses, a trend we refer to quite often on the blog called The Purple Pound. This refers to the spending power of disabled households. For further clarification; a disabled household is a household in which at least one of the members has a disability. 

Aside from monetary benefits, some other results from disability awareness training from businesses and organisations we have worked with include; increased productivity, improved job satisfaction and loyalty among employees, enhanced reputation and brand image, and greater creativity and innovation. From comprehending the benefits of increasing the amount of disabled people featured in marketing to understanding different tips for communication to learning about guide dogs, hearing loops, and other accessibility tools, there is a lot that can be gained from listening to disability experts. Simply by raising awareness of the different types of disabilities, you can instill trust in your brand’s services and core values, which are incredibly important for disabled people, especially when you think about how often their specific needs are ignored. 

On the flip side, what we often see from organisations missing on the business of disabled consumers due to poor accessibility (both physical and digital) and from businesses not being disability confident in their customer service approach is competitors getting ahead of them. 

The solution? Training staff in how to interact with disabled people and educating them on their experience, explaining the fundamental differences between awareness of disability and understanding, clarifying what inclusion is, and explaining the fact that asking all customers if they have any access requirements should be a standard and much more.

When choosing training providers, it’s important to ensure they are sufficiently accredited and have experience delivering disability awareness training. This means that you only receive high-quality, reliable training that meets your organisation’s needs.

Direct Access can provide your organisation with comprehensive disability awareness training that incorporates best practice guidance from the ever-expanding world of accessibility, as well as our personal experience as a team of disabled people.

We have delivered training in multiple formats, whether you prefer in-person, or online via video calls, we will facilitate presentations tailored to suit your specific organisation and its policies, embedding guidance that is specifically relevant to you; whether you operate a tourist destination, a small retail shop, or a museum, we will guide you on your accessibility journey so yourself, your partners, and your patrons can reap the benefits.