Removing Barriers to Disability Inclusion

The theme of International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2024 is ‘Amplifying the leadership of persons with disabilities for an inclusive and sustainable future’. With this in mind, Andy Yates, Chair of Leonardo’s UK employee network group Enable, looks at the steps the company has taken to create an inclusive environment for those with disabilities.

Did you know that 24% of the UK population is disabled? This amounts to 16.1 million people, of whom around 10.2 million are of working age.

Yet, only 5.53 million working-age disabled people are in employment. This means UK employers are missing out on a talent pool of millions of people who potentially hold prerequisite skill sets to address the resourcing demands.

As today is ‘International Day of Persons with Disabilities’, Leonardo’s Enable network is seeking to promote an understanding of disability issues – not only mobilising support for the dignity, rights and wellbeing of persons with disabilities, but also ensuring that those who are disabled have the opportunity to work and take on leadership roles.

By raising awareness, we can remove barriers to career progression such as discrimination, stigma and a lack of understanding. Leonardo is taking decisive action to support disability inclusion, including:

• As a Disability Confident Level 2 Employer, we offer a guaranteed interview to anyone who has a disability and chooses to apply via the programme.
• We have been a member of Business Disability Forum since August 2023. This provides instant access to best-in-class learning and resources to support all employees, but particularly hiring managers, in creating a disability inclusive team.
• Regular training sessions for colleagues on a wide range of subjects linked to disability inclusion, most recently on neurodiversity in the workplace.
• Ensuring that all colleagues have personal development plans, and access to on-demand learning via LinkedIn Learning and Coursera.
• Providing mentoring for all staff via an internal mentoring matching platform.
• Promoting internal mobility by ensuring all employees can access and apply for internal vacancies within Leonardo.
• Our Enable network group works across the business to support disabled and neurodivergent people by providing a safe space to raise concerns, share experiences or advocate for others.