• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Codemotion Magazine

Codemotion Magazine

We code the future. Together

  • Discover
    • Live
    • Tech Communities
    • Hackathons
    • Coding Challenges
    • For Kids
  • Watch
    • Talks
    • Playlists
    • Edu Paths
  • Magazine
    • AI/ML
    • Backend
    • Frontend
    • Dev Life
    • DevOps
    • Soft Skills
  • Talent
  • Partners
  • For Companies
Home » Soft Skills » Diversity » Disability tech is booming – but where are the disabled leaders?
Diversity

Disability tech is booming – but where are the disabled leaders?

Although the disability tech market is growing, there is a lack of disabled leaders in the tech industry. A new toolkit can help increase representation.

Last update January 7, 2020 by Catherine Evans

Disability tech is booming - but where are the disabled leaders?

Designing for disability, producing new products to help disabled people, is a growing trend in the tech industry.

European startups making tech products to help disabled people are entering a booming global assistive technology market worth $26bn by 2024, according to Coherent Market Insights.

And with an estimated 80 million people in the EU affected by a disability, which is expected to rise to 120 million by 2024 according to the European Parliament, this tech trend looks set to continue to grow.

But where are the disabled people in the tech industry, leading the way in this new trend?

Once again, disabled people are being positioned solely as those who need help, not as those who can influence and lead.

How can a toolkit help?

Inclusive Boards, an executive search firm specialising in increasing diversity in boardrooms, recently launched the first in a series of toolkits to encourage organisations to improve the representation of disabled people at board and senior leadership level.

The toolkit makes a number of recommendations to organisations and sectors to aid them in increasing the disability diversity of their Board and senior leadership teams.

The recommendations fall into six key sections: recruitment, working environments, progressing talent, engagement and communication, technological solutions and recommendations for government.

Each section has a checklist of steps for organisations and sectors to take as they work to improve the representation of disabled people at board and senior leadership level.

The toolkit offers practical advice to improve disability diversity in the higher echelons of a company’s structure. The second toolkit, focusing on addressing the challenges faced by those with hidden impairments, will be launched by Inclusive Boards in 2020.

It is hoped that the toolkit will help to combat widespread discrimination against disabled people in the workplace.

A recent poll by Survation in the UK found that the majority of business leaders were apprehensive about recruiting disabled people to senior positions.

A significant 41% of respondents were concerned that disabled staff might need a lot of sick leave, while 45% worried their offices would not be accessible to those with disabilities. Only 11% of the 1,000 respondents in the survey said they would have no concerns in recruiting a disabled person into a senior role.

The director of Inclusive Boards, Samuel Kasumu, said: “The findings of this poll shows just how far we are as a society from truly understanding how to engage with disability within the workplace.

“There are many disabled people that have just as much talent and leadership potential as anyone else. We need to educate businesses and challenge many misconceptions.”

Recommended reads:
How Can Coding Help the Environment?

How-To Guide: Improving Web Accessibility

facebooktwitterlinkedinreddit
Share on:facebooktwitterlinkedinreddit
Build your pipeline project with… style!
Previous Post
Azure functions & Azure Durable functions
Next Post

Related articles

  • Of Unicorns in Tech and of the Value of LGBTIQ+
  • Mothers in Tech: a Different Perspective of Diversity in IT
  • Tech’s BAME heroes
  • How can businesses attract more women into leadership positions?
  • Unconscious bias training: what is it and how effective is it in increasing diversity?
  • How do we make tech less male, pale and stale?
  • Because we’re worth it: tech’s top women
  • Free coding lessons tackling women’s “imposter syndrome” in tech
  • Dear recruiter: How can I get a job in tech with a disability?
  • Black, bright and female? Join the Silicon Valley tech revolution

Primary Sidebar

Lessons Learned in the Cloud

Dive deep into this whitepaper dedicated to the Cloud and discover more about Kubernetes.

OVH Logo Lessons learned in the cloud

Codemotion Milan 2022

https://youtu.be/ym8iilUy_U0

Latest Articles

flutter for web development

Go Full Web With Flutter

Web Developer

mobile developer, mobile or web

Mobile or Web Development: Which is the Best Career Path to Choose in 2022?

IT Careers

JAMSTACK

Video: Combining Jamstack, Vue.js, and a Headless CMS

Web Developer

integrate VueJS

How-to Guide: Adding VueJS to Your Existing Project

JavaScript

Discover More

  • Video: How to Use Python for Async Microservices
  • Step by Step: Running Angular Applications in AWS
  • Top Trending Python Frameworks Today

Footer

  • Magazine
  • Events
  • Community
  • Learning
  • Kids
  • How to use our platform
  • Contact us
  • Write for Us
  • About Codemotion Magazine
  • How to run a meetup
  • Tools for virtual conferences

Follow us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • RSS

DOWNLOAD APP

© Copyright Codemotion srl Via Marsala, 29/H, 00185 Roma P.IVA 12392791005 | Privacy policy | Terms and conditions

Follow us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • RSS

DOWNLOAD APP

CONFERENCE CHECK-IN