Some research considered other marginalised groups in the sport and physical activity workforce, but did not take an intersectional perspective and treated each identity in isolation.
Coverage of enablers and barriers to disabled people’s participation in the sport workforce was limited, tending to offer a wider commentary reflecting statistics, rather than personal perspectives of disabled people. Only a handful of sources provided some insights, which helped us structure the primary research design and interview questions.
Two of these were Aspire’s EmployAbility Guides and ukactive’s Everyone Can initiative.
Based on initial findings we decided to carry out in-depth interviews to understand the barriers and enablers experienced by disabled people in the professional world, and to develop recommendations that would make a real difference.
Interviewees shared personal stories with examples of both good and bad practices, including a personal trainer who had to hear that the reasonable adjustments put in place to help them do their job were perceived as ‘unfair’ by a colleague.
The need for further change
Accessible application processes, upfront information about roles or inclusive approaches to interviews (for example, choice of video or in-person) made a real difference and gave many the opportunity to consider a role.
To truly understand the reality of employment for disabled people in sport and physical activity, the report should be viewed as a whole and organisations should take a person-centred approach to ensure people can apply and remain as part of our sector’s workforce.
We published three key headline recommendations:
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Adopt a ‘flexible by default’ approach to job roles. Normalise adaptations and consider flexibility beyond whether the employee could choose their hours to include how adjustments could be made across the wider team. For example could the disabled employee do certain tasks while a non-disabled colleague picks up others?
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Provide advice and guidance for employing disabled people. There is a clear need for an effective source of advice and guidance for employers to turn good intentions into action and organisations should aim to create a culture that values - and is informed by - diverse voices and experiences.
- Proactively identify and remove barriers that exist at all stages of the 'work journey'.
In our research we tried to break down this path into different stages to explore barriers and enablers at each point, but it became clear that many challenges recurred throughout. Employers need to provide clear information about their available role using diverse and suitable communication platforms. They need to learn continually and listen to their disabled staff continually. A good way to achieve this is employing disabled consultants to identify and remove barriers through an inclusive culture.
Organisations who were seen to be committed to inclusion appealed to participants, but the main conclusion to take from the report is clear: there is still a lot of work to be done in creating equal opportunities for all and there’s an urgent need for the sport and physical activity sector to address recruitment and retention strategies.
We hope that in highlighting real-life experiences we can shine a light on both the good, the bad and on the way forward.
There is undoubtedly a desire in the sector to ensure disabled people do not have to overcome barriers to enter the workforce and we firmly believe that this piece of research could be a key tool to unlocking those opportunities.
