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When Charles Brock began searching for a marketing job after college, he believed that he had the same potential as all other graduates.
However, thousands of applications later, he failed to acquire the position. His lack of success had nothing to do with his academic ability, he says. Rather, it was his obstacle: a serious spectral disorder.
After one interview experience, when he arrived from the building immediately, he stopped disclosure of the application’s obstacles and began leaving his canes and guide dogs behind. Describing his vision as constantly focused, Brock recalls what he said to many recruiters at the end of the interview. “My obstacles aren’t the problem. I can do that.”
Brock isn’t alone. Job seekers with disabilities have been hit particularly hard, as there are few advertised positions and often have a large number of graduates applied for each. The average UK employer received 140 applications per graduate vacancies, a 30-year record and a 59% increase the previous year. This is the Student Employer Institute, an organization of companies and educational institutions discovered in 2024.
Disabled JobHunters face more challenges than their non-disabled peers, and on average they need to submit 60% of their applications. According to the scope of disability charities, only about half secure interviews, compared to two-thirds of nondisabled applicants.
They are at a disadvantage as more than half of employers say they are concerned about the ability of disabled employees to do their jobs. These statistics even come despite the fact that most large UK companies claim to support diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
In the US, the Trump administration concludes with companies adopting the value of DEI, a program that has led to a more inclusive workplace over the past few years. Washington is pressured by other companies, such as Europe and the UK, to track their leads and comply with executive orders banning DEI programs if they are US government suppliers or service providers.
“They say businesses can’t discriminate, but who’s police it?” Bloch adds that recruiters often have certain types of people in mind, but “When you see people with disabilities, you can’t help but think that they won’t fit in that box.”
Job seekers with disabilities may struggle with the application process. Samidal, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, says his disability means that he was behind his peers by finding work, as his daily tasks take time, as he doesn’t have time to produce “amount of application or quality.”
In 2022, DAR established 10,000 Eable interns, a UK programme that offers internships to people with disabilities and long-term health conditions. “I offered a lot, but I was struggling to manufacture the opportunity to prove it,” he says.
UK employers are bound by the Equality Act of 2010 to make reasonable adjustments to people with disabilities. These can be anything from hybrid work to assistive technology, but Dar says that such adaptation is often not a priority. Employers “have a very focus on production and profits, which makes me less capable of thinking about my needs as an individual,” he says. Proper adjustments are often overlooked, he says. This meant that we missed many work events, including team building weekends and social events.
Recruiters who have not made adjustments such as extra time will block many people with disabilities from completing mandatory tasks in the application process. A visually impaired 22-year-old engineering student who spoke on condition of anonymity said he was unable to complete his placement assessment on time as his extra requests were not answered.
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She encourages businesses to rethink their additional needs process. “I was just as competent as other students and was very enthusiastic about applying for the roles I did,” she says. “If these companies have a recruitment system that discriminates against people like me, you can’t call them “equal employers.” ”
The blind David Clark is the CEO of the UK’s Paralympic Association. He says discrimination begins with a “experience deficit.” There, people with disabilities often have gaps in their resumes because they don’t have the same opportunity for internships, work experience or degrees.
George Nineson, the recruiting director for international law firms Simmons and Simmons, says businesses must be “as clear as possible” about responding to reasonable adjustments. She recommends that businesses present success stories in relation to hiring applicants with disabilities. “Something reassessment is important so if people are wrong, they can handle it,” she says.
