Each year, on the 3rd of December is International Day of People with Disabilities! At Dexterous Designs, we are proud to be part of the disability confident scheme meaning we are committed to taking action when recruiting, training, and developing disabled people in the workplace.
This year, we would like to highlight and celebrate the trials and tribulations, but also opportunities for people who live with disabilities within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
So, how has the global pandemic affected disabled people?
Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, absolutely everybody has seen their lives affected by the social, political, and economic changes that have been made to our world. However, today we focus on and recognise, that people who live with disabilities are among the most highly affected populations in the global pandemic.
For people living with disabilities, access to routine health care checks have been compromised, therefore leaving millions of people with special needs with a fraction of the help that they ideally require. Since the breakout of COVID-19 it has become increasingly difficult to access doctors appointments for non-covid related issues, meaning the requirements of disabled people have regrettably fallen in priority for healthcare services.
In addition to this, not only have routine health care checks been compromised, but there has also been a decrease in lack of emergency preparedness for people with disabilities. Therefore, making the lives of disabled populations and their families progressively worrisome as the global pandemic continues. In fact, feelings of anxiety, stress, boredom, and worry have spiked in recent surveys conducted on disabled people as concern for their health, and access to facilities becomes a growing concern. According to the Office for National Statistics, after conducting a series of surveys exploring this, they found that disabled people are ‘more likely than non-disabled people to report that the Coronavirus pandemic has made their mental health worse’ as disabled people (compared with non-disabled people) have experienced a 20% increase in rates of anxiety since the start of the pandemic.
Our view
So, this is why we feel it is important to support and encourage work opportunities for those that live with disabilities. If truth be told, we can all learn from the life experiences and struggles faced by people living with special needs, especially within the current climate. By recruiting staff with disabilities, we are making more meaningful investments in our socioeconomic world which, as a result, will continue to knock down barriers felt and faced by disabled people.
At Dexterous Designs we firmly believe in making job adverts accessible for everyone and always ensure against discrimination. Being part of the disability confident scheme means we allow our business to draw from the widest pool of talent possible.
Happy international People with Disabilities Day!
