Closing the growing skills gap within the tech industry, and ensuring cloud users have the resources they need to succeed means throwing the doors open to all budding technologists, including those with disabilities. Historically, people with disabilities have faced lower employment rates, and lower wages, than people with no disabilities.
Recent data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that only 19% of people with disabilities are employed, compared to 64% of those without.
The global pandemic has only compounded the issue. COVID-19 had a disproportionate impact on disabled people on multiple fronts, not least in employment. In the early days of the pandemic, employment rates for people with disabilities in the US fell by 20%, with disabled workers being more widely affected by layoffs and redundancies.
What’s more, only 61% of AWS professionals, surveyed for the Jefferson Frank Careers and Hiring Guide: AWS Edition agree that their workforce includes people with disabilities, with 11% disagreeing.
People with disabilities faced additional barriers to continuing employment too, such as clinical vulnerabilities, challenges adhering to COVID mitigation practices, and limitations on accessible transport. With cloud technology now equipping professionals with the tools to work and collaborate from anywhere, it’s time for that to change. Failing to make your brand and your workplace—whether it be bricks and mortar or virtual—accessible to everyone means overlooking a huge amount of talent. Accessibility is inclusion; and not an afterthought or a box-checking exercise.
In this article, we’ll talk through just a few of the ways your organization can be more accessible to candidates and ensure you’re not missing out on your next great hire in the process.
Making your brand more accessible and inclusive
#1: Make your website and social media content accessible to screen readers
If you want to attract talent to your organization, the content that you put out needs to be accessible. Making your job ads readable to all potential candidates isn’t difficult. After all, most job ads are text-based, so just make sure you’re using a large, clear font, adding subheadings to clarify the flow of information, and ascribing alt-text to any visual elements.
But it’s not just your job ad that should be accessible. To make your brand inclusive, every part of your content output should be readable to everyone—how else will potential hires get a feel for your company and understand why they should join your team?
There are many tools out there to help you size up your content’s accessibility. WAVE, for example, reviews your site and makes suggestions for accessibility improvements.
That goes for social media, too. The online community is incredibly important to many disabled people, so if you’re looking to get your open roles in front of potential candidates, then you need to craft an accessible online presence. Not only will this make sure you’re getting your opportunities to the right people, but it will also help showcase your brand as one that’s committed to accessibility and creating equitable spaces. Simple things like using #CamelCase for hashtags, avoiding special characters and non-standard fonts, and using descriptive call-to-actions make it easier for assistive technology tools to interpret your content.
#2: Question whether a candidate really needs a university degree
In an industry where talent is scarce and the most in-demand skills are constantly changing, there’s an argument to be made about whether a degree is really necessary for many tech roles. Hiring for soft skills like adaptability and eagerness to learn is likely to be a more effective strategy for developing talent—especially when you’re looking to diversify your team.
University simply isn’t for everyone; in fact, young people with disabilities are 10% less likely to attend college or university due to the additional physical and societal barriers they face. By mandating a degree in your job ad, you could be missing out on highly talented and capable candidates.
Think about what you’re really looking for when you’re asking for a degree. Don’t use formal education as shorthand; ask yourself what experience or skills you want in your new hire. Could a candidate have acquired them via routes other than university?
It’s perfectly possible that there are candidates out there with the skills you’re looking for who don’t have a degree. With a huge number of free and accessible resources available these days, many budding technologists can learn new skills, and even earn certifications, entirely on their own terms.
#3: Post your jobs on recruitment platforms that are built with accessibility in mind
If you want to reach a wider candidate pool, post your vacancies on job boards that focus on accessible roles with companies that are serious about inclusivity; like Evenbreak, Patchwork Hub, and abilityJOBS.
“There’s a new ‘business as usual,'” said Patchwork Hub Founder Beth Kume-Holland, “and it’s up to all of us to make sure this moment of opportunity leads to lasting, positive change around work practices. I’m determined that those living with disabilities or chronic health conditions should be integrated into the future model of work—front, and center of the change, rather than being a separate category added on at the end. I often speak to employers who are very willing to make these changes but simply don’t know where to begin.”
Sites like these will connect you directly to a diverse pool of candidates who are looking to further their careers and supporting these new channels of talent is vital if we want to future-proof talent pipelines and break old hiring habits.
#4: Adopt more flexible and remote work opportunities
If you have a physical space, it must be accessible to everyone, and that means making reasonable adjustments for employees who do want to attend the office. However, empowering your workforce with the autonomy to decide where and when they work best is the most impactful way to make your roles accessible.
The rigid, office-based 9-5 makes life unnecessarily, and in a lot of cases, prohibitively, difficult for many employees with disabilities.
Giving employees the option to work from home removes all kinds of physical, mental, financial, and time-related obstacles, enabling professionals to simply get on with their jobs. Advances in remote working technology are making it easier than ever to collaborate and communicate effectively no matter how dispersed your team may be.
Offering flexible working hours, as well as the ability to work from home, is another quick win for making your organization more inclusive. Life is unpredictable, and flexible working helps all employees manage their work-life balance, increase wellbeing, and reduce stress. It can have a particularly positive impact for professionals with disabilities, who are more likely to have additional challenges to overcome in their daily lives.
#5: Offer reasonable adjustments (but don't make it sound like a chore)
Sadly, discrimination against people with disabilities in the workplace remains common. Fear of unfair treatment can put off many capable professionals from applying for roles, and it’s an issue far too entrenched for a copy-and-pasted compliance statement about reasonable adjustments on your job ad to fix.
Too often, candidates with disabilities are made to feel ‘othered’ in the workplace; to make your hiring process as inclusive as possible, you should offer adjustments and alternatives without making them seem like an inconvenience, or something outside your usual process. Provide options at every stage of the hiring cycle; a candidate may find it easier to accept an offer than to make a request.
Providing a checklist of preferences, for example offering video interviews, additional time to take written tests, and making your application forms available in accessible formats, gives candidates a fuss-free way to give their best throughout.
Offering adjustments to everyone makes candidates with disabilities feel less singled out, and since many disabilities are not visible or obvious, you could be paving the way for a brilliant candidate you didn’t even know would appreciate the support.
Making opportunities in tech accessible to all
At Revolent, we source the most driven, enthusiastic tech professionals and cross-train them into talent-scarce cloud tech roles, from Salesforce and MuleSoft to AWS and Microsoft Cloud.
We understand the value of fresh perspectives, which is why we work to solve our clients’ skills shortages by developing and delivering experienced, certified tech specialists from a range of backgrounds.
Our talented Revols come from all walks of life, not only providing the skills and knowledge you need to fast-track digital transformation, but also helping you achieve your Diversity, Equality and Inclusion goals and bringing innovative new ideas to your team.
