Last reviewed: 22 June 2022

• To hire more disabled people, you must first attract them to your organisation and make them want to apply.
• Disabled people will base their decision on whether to apply on how your organisation presents itself – make sure your organisation is welcoming and positive about disability.
• You can do this by looking at your brand, advertising in an inclusive way, and working with other organisations.

Brand

Building the expectation of welcoming and fair treatment for disabled applicants into your employer brand is essential. You will be far more successful at attracting disabled applicants if your brand clearly communicates your values as an inclusive and welcoming employer.

Some steps you can take to build this into your brand are:

• Include visibly disabled people in public-facing materials, including (but not limited to) job adverts.
• Appoint a Senior or Executive Disability Champion who speaks publicly about their lived experience of disability and/or how they have used their seniority in the organisation to improve the working lives of disabled employees.
• Prominently share details of steps you have taken to improve inclusion in recruitment and retention of disabled colleagues. Share them on your website and in other places disabled people are likely to see them, for example in premises visited by disabled customers or service users.
• Disabled people do not necessarily read the disability press. However, it may be useful to advertise general messages in such publications to help build your reputation.

You want disabled people to associate your brand with disability inclusion so that when they are looking for a job, they will already have an understanding that your organisation would be a good place for them to work.

Job adverts

Employers need to consider both:

• where the job is advertised
• what the job advert says – positive and inclusive language.

Where to advertise

Where you advertise a job opportunity will impact the audiences that see it and their impression of the job.

You could attract more disabled applicants by working with disability charities and organisations to share your job advert. This may mean it will be seen by more disabled people and gives your organisation more credibility as an inclusive employer.

If you advertise through online platforms such as Indeed or LinkedIn, make sure that the job advert is accessible to disabled viewers.

You can also advertise your jobs physically, for example at college and university job fairs. See ‘Working with other organisations’ below for more advice about working with other organisations to advertise and attract disabled applicants.

What to say in the job advert

Part of the role of the job advert is to sell your organisation to potential applicants. Therefore, the language you use should be positive and encouraging to all applicants, including disabled applicants.

Consider the following points when creating job adverts:

• Use accessible, clear language and write in Plain English. See our resource ‘Using plain English and writing in an accessible way’ for more information.
• Make sure the job advert states clearly and prominently your commitment to disability inclusion. Use positive language such as “We encourage disabled applicants to apply” and provide examples of organisations you work with – such as BDF – to improve inclusion in your organisation.
• Outline the application process – for example, state how many interviews are involved, details of any tests or assessments, and how long each stage of the process is expected to take. This helps disabled applicants know whether they will need adjustments and can remove some uncertainty for applicants with disabilities that can be affected by uncertainty, such as mental ill-health and autism.
• Invite disabled applicants to request adjustments. You could also provide examples of adjustments that can be made to the process – for example, extra time for assessments or sign language interpreters at interviews.
• State that you will accept applications in different formats, and include examples, such as a recorded video instead of a written cover letter. Encourage applicants to get in touch to talk about alternative formats that they could use to apply.
• Provide at least two ways to contact your organisation for more information, for example by email and by telephone. This is important because one means of contact may be inaccessible to some disabled applicants – for example, an applicant with hearing loss may not be able to use the telephone easily, but can send an email.
• Make sure the distinction between ‘desirable’ and ‘essential’ criteria is clear.
• Also state if you provide an ‘offer an interview’ scheme, where disabled candidates who meet the minimum or ‘essential’ criteria will be automatically offered an interview. Read more about these in our resource ‘’Offer an interview’ schemes’.

Positive action

Encouraging disabled people to apply for jobs is known as ‘positive action’.

You can do this explicitly with a statement in the job advert, for example: “We are a disability inclusive employer and encourage disabled people to apply for this role. Please contact us for information about the application process and adjustments.”

This is different from positive discrimination or ‘ringfencing’. For more information about this, see our resource ‘Can we ringfence jobs for people with particular disabilities?’

Where to advertise

It is important to consider where you advertise, as this will decide who will see your job advert.

Recruitment websites

Many organisations advertise roles through job boards and online recruitment sites, such as Indeed, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor.

These can be great ways to increase the numbers of people who see your job adverts – but make sure that your adverts are accessible within the website. For example, if you use images, make sure you can add alternative text so they can be interpreted by a screen reader.

Familiarise yourselves with the accessibility requirements of each platform, and check for any accessibility issues before publishing an advert to an external site.

Social media

Social media can be a useful platform for reaching potential applicants who tend to avoid text-heavy sites, such as traditional job-seeking websites, for example people with dyslexia.

Advertising on social media can allow you to be more creative in the way you advertise jobs – for example, you could use a video or images instead of text. Advertising this way can make jobs more appealing to some disabled candidates, and mean you reach some people you may not have reached otherwise.

If you do advertise on social media, make sure the adverts you share are accessible within the site. For example, make sure to add closed captions to any video, and make videos and images the right dimensions so that any information isn’t accidentally cropped when uploaded.

Working with other organisations

You can also work with other organisations to attract more disabled applicants. Organisations that could help attract disabled applicants include specialist disability charities, NGOs, colleges and universities

External organisations could help by:

• Sharing your job adverts to their networks, for example on social media or in newsletters
• Advising you on language to use in the job advert
• Inviting you to hold a stall at a job fair or other event they host.

Have a look at local events where you could advertise roles and consider attending. Make sure any materials you share at events are accessible and available in alternative formats, such as large print.

Make sure that these organisations will have a positive impact and their input will not deter disabled applicants from applying. For example, some charities may not have a positive reputation among some groups, and so involving them may do more harm than good. However, there are many external organisations that could help you.

Business Disability Forum

Business Disability Forum can advise Members and Partners about attracting disabled people to work with you.

Contact your Disability Business Partner or our Advice Service to talk about how we can support you

Disability Confident scheme

Employers can also get support with attracting disabled people through the UK’s Disability Confident scheme.

Find out more about Disability Confident in our resource ‘Being a Disability Confident employer’.

Jobcentre Plus

In the UK, Employers can also get help from a local Jobcentre Plus. They can advise on making your application process accessible, inclusive recruitment practices and information about adjustments to the recruitment process.

Read next

• Essential and desirable criteria
• ‘Offer an interview’ schemes
• Can we ringfence jobs for people with specific disabilities?
• Being a disability confident employer

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