Last reviewed: 22 June 2022
- Make sure your selection criteria and processes do not discriminate against disabled people – make them flexible and focused on the core competencies of the role.
- Don’t discount non-traditional experience and qualifications – some disabled people may have valuable skills and knowledge but not the experience and qualifications you were expecting.
- You may need to weight parts of some disabled candidates’ application differently – for example, if the candidate finds traditional interviews harder.
- You can ringfence roles for disabled people generally – but it is usually unlawful to ringfence roles for people with a specific disability.
Key considerations
Selection processes which are flexible and competency based enable more disabled people to get jobs. When reviewing an application form or CV from a disabled person, it is important to remember:
- If an applicant seems over-qualified there could be a legitimate disability-related reason for a change of career or a “backward” step.
- Formal education qualifications may not be an accurate indicator of capability as many disabled people have been disadvantaged by the education system.
- Periods of inactivity may be directly related to disability.
- Do not discount voluntary work and life experience. Candidates may have gained invaluable organisational and creative problem-solving skills in response to their experience of disability.
- Be particularly careful when sifting applications for jobs for which writing is not a core part of the role, as applicants may not have strong writing skills.
If you use automated short listing, ensure that the system is able to make adjustments for disabled applicants. For example, some CV sorting and data mining software will sift on the basis of inaccurate spelling, which may discriminate against applicants with dyslexia, or will reject applications with gaps in work history or which do not meet minimum educational criteria.
The law
Employers have a legal duty under the Equality Act 2010 to avoid discrimination against disabled candidates in their shortlisting and selection practices. The types of discrimination you need to avoid in shortlisting and selection are:
- Direct discrimination – treating a candidate unfavourably because of their disability. For example, declining to shortlist a candidate because you know they have a disability.
- Indirect discrimination – implementing and following policies and practices that place a candidate at a disadvantage because of their disability. For example, only shortlisting candidates who can drive, where a disabled candidate who travels with different means could also perform the job.
This means you may need to make some changes to the way to shortlist and select candidates, in order to eliminate features that may – even unintentionally – make it harder for a competent disabled candidate to be shortlisted or selected.
One way of doing this is by weighting parts of a disabled candidate’s application differently in order to avoid discrimination. For example, if a candidate has shown that they have the skills and knowledge to perform in the role, but they don’t have the formal qualifications required because they experienced discrimination in the education system, it may be fairer to weight their qualifications less heavily.
Ringfencing
Some employers seek to keep certain roles aside for disabled candidates in general, or for candidates with a specific disability. The former can be lawful, however the latter is usually unlawful.
Bear this in mind when shortlisting and selecting. You can treat a candidate more favourably because they are disabled, as long as you do not treat them more favourably than another disabled candidate.
Ringfencing in selection and selection should only be carried out with a confident knowledge of what the law permits. For information about ringfencing, see our resource ‘Can we ringfence jobs for people with a particular disability?’ in this Toolkit.
Contact our Advice Service for tailored guidance.
Read next
- Can we ringfence jobs for people with a particular disability?
- Disability discrimination legislation and jurisdiction
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