Disability History Month 2024 – disability and employment

Spanning the period including International HIV/AIDS Day, International Day of People with Disabilities, and International Human Rights Day, Disability History Month seeks to redress the severe and entrenched inequalities experienced by all those with disabilities, including people who develop illnesses as diverse as cancer and HIV, who are neurodiverse, or develop mental health problems. Disabled people are the only group in the UK who are lawfully entitled to positive discrimination under employment law in an attempt to counteract the severe and persistent inequality in employment and financial independence enjoyed by disabled people.

Disability was once synonymous with unemployment, with the disabled surviving by begging on the streets or subsisting on charity. In recent years, the outlook for disabled people in the UK workforce has improved steadily. Despite a setback during the COVID-19 pandemic, employment levels among disabled people have continued to rise steadily since comparable records began in 2013, but the rates of employment among certain groups, including neurodivergent and mentally unwell people remains far below the national average.

Read more on the Disability History Month website.