{"id":2294,"date":"2020-01-07T12:58:27","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T11:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.codemotion.com\/magazine\/uncategorized\/disability-tech-is-booming-but-where-are-the-disabled-leaders\/"},"modified":"2022-07-08T10:19:37","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T08:19:37","slug":"disability-tech-is-booming-but-where-are-the-disabled-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.codemotion.com\/magazine\/soft-skills\/diversity\/disability-tech-is-booming-but-where-are-the-disabled-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Disability tech is booming – but where are the disabled leaders?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Designing for disability, producing new products to help disabled people, is a growing trend<\/span> in the tech industry.<\/p>\n

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

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<\/span> looks set to continue to grow.<\/p>\n

But where are the disabled people in the tech industry, leading the way in this new trend<\/span>? <\/p>\n

Once again, disabled people are being positioned solely as those who need help, not as those who can influence<\/span> and lead. <\/p>\n

How can a toolkit help?<\/h2>\n

Inclusive Boards, an executive search<\/span> 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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The recommendations fall into six key sections: recruitment, working environments, progressing talent, engagement and communication, technological solutions and recommendations for government. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It is hoped that the toolkit will help to combat widespread discrimination against disabled people in the workplace.<\/p>\n

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

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<\/span> said they would have no concerns in recruiting a disabled person into a senior role.<\/p>\n

The director of Inclusive Boards, Samuel Kasumu, said: \u201cThe findings of this poll shows just how far we are as a society from truly understanding how to engage with disability within the workplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere 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.\u201d <\/p>\n