What is a Disability Confident Employer?

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What is a Disability Confident employer & how do I become one?

Disability Confident is a Government scheme that aims to develop more disability-inclusive workplaces. The purpose of this is to remove barriers and recognise the potential talent of many individuals with disabilities.

Disability Confident employers are leaders in increasing understanding and challenging attitudes towards disability, removing barriers, and providing opportunities for disabled people to realise their potential.

The Equality Act 2010 considers neurodivergence such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and dyspraxia, disabilities in the UK. Therefore, neurodiverse people are protected from discrimination under the Equality Act.

As a Disability Confident Leader, Exceptional Individuals support organisations to become Disability Confident.

What is expected from a company that holds a disability confident status?


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Disability Confident: Committed
This is the first stage of becoming disability confident. Organisations need to accept the Disability Confident commitments, as well as one action to support disabled employees. This can be work experience, apprenticeships, and more.

Disability Confident: Employer
To be a disability confident employer, the organisation must look into their own recruitment process and improve at least two areas needing development. This is to ensure the right people are being recruited and looking into retaining and developing them. Disability Confident employers are willing to do more for their disabled employees so that everyone is dealt with fairly.

Disability Confident: Leader
The organisation will be a leader within the community and have strong commitments to people with disabilities. Organisations need to have a stamp of approval to recognise their commitment and be assessed by an external Disability Confident Leader, such as Exceptional Individuals.

How to Become Disability Confident

At Exceptional Individuals, we provide this support to organizations looking to become disability confident employers and will be supported throughout the whole process. All you need to do is give us a call and we will support you with the application forms and give you some steps to improve your organisation’s approach.

After the application forms have been completed, we can identify actions to make the culture of the organisation better in supporting disabled employees. This will then be followed up with a company audit to examine your online and offline application process to help you to meet the requirements to become a Disability Confident Leader so that you will be able to recruit and retain neurodiverse individuals. Once you have implemented the recommendations, you will be supported by us to claim your accreditation and badge.

Find out more about Disability Confident accreditation