Disabled lawyers benefit from home working shift
The majority of disabled lawyers in a study by the Law Society of England and Wales have welcomed home-working in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A survey of more than 100 disabled lawyers, launched today, November 2, by the Law Society in partnership with the Legally Disabled Research Team based at Cardiff University, found that working from home during the COVID-19 outbreak has enabled the majority of respondents to manage their disability more effectively.
The vast majority (70%) of disabled lawyers were clear that they would prefer to work remotely in the long term.
According to Cardiff University’s research, “The Career Experiences of Disabled People in the Legal Profession in England and Wales”, which was published in January, home-working was until recently the most requested (and refused) reasonable disability adjustment in the profession.
“What we can almost certainly predict is that reasons commonly given to justify this refusal will in future hold little legitimacy and the basis of what is ‘reasonable’ in terms of home-working will change as a consequence of COVID-19,” said the latest report.
During the lockdown in March to July/August, disabled people reported experiencing new, more accessible opportunities including remote work experience, professional development, social events and networking.
However, some aspects of remote working, such as technology and remote recruitment processes, were not always beneficial.
“We were also disappointed to find that most disabled people did not have a positive experience of recruiters, which reaffirms a key finding of ‘Legally Disabled?’, which highlighted that many disabled candidates experience direct and indirect discrimination by recruitment agencies,” said the report.
It recommended that employers, recruiters and interviewers should consider a wider range of technologies, avoiding prior assumptions about the accessibility of different technologies and platforms.
Law Society president David Greene said: “Our research clearly shows that increased remote and flexible working have the potential to make the legal profession more accessible to disabled solicitors. We hope firms will take this into account when making future plans for remote working.”
Reasonable adjustments
Cardiff University’s January study claimed that some 40% of those surveyed either never or only sometimes tell their employer or prospective employer they are disabled.
Interestingly, during the pandemic, 9% and 19% disclosed to their current employer and colleagues respectively for the first time. The majority of respondents had already disclosed their impairment to their employer (85%) but fewer had disclosed to their colleagues (64%).
The survey also looked at reasonable adjustments (which are changes the employer can make to remove or reduce the effect of an employee's disability so they can do their job).
Just over half of respondents said they already had reasonable adjustments in place prior to the pandemic. One-fifth of respondents said they had requested reasonable adjustments for the first time since lockdown.
The most commonly requested adjustment that was not provided was disability awareness training for colleagues.
Debbie Foster, lead researcher on the ‘Legally Disabled’ project and professor of employment relations and diversity at Cardiff University, said: “In most cases, homeworking has given disabled people greater control over how they manage their impairment and working environment.
“The business case for home-working as a reasonable adjustment in this respect has been well and truly made! However, we caution against over-generalisations and highlight the importance of choice to avoid disabled people being 'ghettoised' in the home in a post-COVID world.”
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