One in five people in the UK have a disability, with the majority having an invisible disability such as dyslexia, mental health conditions, chronic pain and autism. Many people with invisible conditions choose to keep it under wraps in interviews or click the “Prefer not to say” box on an applicant sign-up form when asked to disclose.

But there can be huge benefits for organisations that create inclusive environments for workers to freely speak about their conditions and receive the correct support. These include:

• Access to a wider pool of talent and higher quality candidates
• A steadfast and loyal workforce as traditionally when disabled people are happy in their place of work they will stay for longer
• Access to the collective spending power of disabled individuals and their families, which is estimated at £249 billion

The free event takes place from 9.30am to 3pm at The Hauser Forum (3 Charles Babbage Road, Cambridge, CB3 0GT), with speakers confirmed so far including:

• Department of Work and Pensions: Introducing the Disability Confident Scheme
•  Sally Ward, PurpleSpace: Helping Employees with Disability Networks
• Yvonne Smyth, Hays, Inclusive Recruitment: Laying the Foundation for Change
• Adelle Shaw-Flach, Sweet Potato Consultancy, Creating a Powerful Workplace Wellbeing Strategy
• Mark  Woodward & Janine King, Iansyst, Enabling staff with workplace adjustments and coaching

>>Sign up here

About Disability Confident

In 2018, Disability Confident, a government initiative for businesses to include more disabled staff, reached over 10,000 sign-ups with major corporations getting on board to create disability inclusive work cultures. Iansyst, a disability solutions provider, hopes to see this number grow in 2019 to increase the number of employers confident at employing individuals with ‘hidden’ disabilities.