Engaging with the disabled

Disability Inclusion and the Impact of Covid-19 on Disabled People and their Employment: Caroline Casey, founder, The Valuable 500; Jay Muthu, executive director for employee experience, Virgin Media; and Sabina Khanom, head of inclusion, Aviva

A DISABILITY panel has reflected upon the difficulties faced by disabled people during the coronavirus pandemic.

Caroline Casey, founder of the Valuable 500, noted the flexibility shown by employers during the ongoing pandemic, by allowing staff to work from home and reducing hours if needed.

“Covid-19 saw every business become flexible and make changes for employees – the world can’t unforget this,” Casey said.

“This flexibility can and should be done for disabled employees too.”

She added: “We’re not here today to point out all the things we’re not doing, but what we’re doing well. We need to focus on those cracks where the light gets in.”

Jay Muthu revealed his struggles during the pandemic. For instance, he found that staff at train stations were hesitant to help him with his wheelchair fearing they would catch Covid.

“The government needs to support disabled people better during Covid,” Muthu said.

Muthu believes the conversation needs to be normalised, so disabilities become easier to talk about. Too many people do not know how to discuss it, he said. “Getting comfortable with the uncomfortable is what’s needed,” he added.

Disabled people are still marginalised in many parts of the world, he explained.

“We continue to need to keep proving ourselves and get over the ‘imposter syndrome’,” he said. “Society believes we should be in a corner doing small things and not aiming for the skies.”

Casey added it was initially hard to accept her disability when the world was not designed for it.

“I discovered that my biggest disability was not being blind, but the inches between my ears – what I thought about myself,” she admitted.

Meanwhile, Aviva’s head on inclusion, Sabina Khanom, spoke about the moves made by the insurance company to be more representative and encompassing. Although Aviva has “great disability policies”, Khanom said the biggest challenge was “implementing them through line managers”.

There are about 14 million people in the UK who live with a disability, figures have revealed.