The Disability Standard was originally developed in partnership with our leading members and Employers’ Forum on Disability’s disabled associates in 2004. Significant time and resources were invested in developing the Disability Standard, because members recognised the importance of getting it right on disability and striving to improve their performance year on year.

The Research and Development Group contained the following members:
Abbey, BT, BUPA, Barclays, Centrica, Cable & Wireless, HSBC, Royal Mail, PricewaterhouseCoopers and UnumProvident

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Metropolitan Police Service, Jobcentre Plus, Department for Education and Skills and the Department for Work and Pensions helped to tailor the Disability Standard to the needs of the public sector.

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Diversity Change Model ©

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The Disability Standard is underpinned by the Diversity Change Model©. The model was developed by Dr Gillian Shapiro from extensive research with organisations in the UK, Europe and North America. The model comprises three key elements:

Motivate
Motivate the organisation and its people to undertake diversity action.
Act
Take action in order to develop and value diversity.
Impact
Assess the impact of diversity action and learn from this assessment to re-motivate the organisation and establish future goals.

The model reflects Dr Gillian Shapiro’s research into how to achieve demonstrable results when promoting diversity across complex organisations.

Dr Shapiro is managing director of Shapiro Consulting Ltd. She has worked with organisations in the public and private sectors in the UK and across Europe, improving innovation, customer service and individual potential by building on the business benefits of diversity. She also developed the gender and race benchmarks; Opportunity Now and Race for Opportunity and has worked closely with senior management teams, helping them develop strategies for positively managing diversity.

Following the 2004 pilot, the Disability Standard was officially launched in 2005, with 80 organisations taking part. Feedback sought from these participants helped to make Disability Standard 2007 even better with over 100 organisations completing the online assessment.

Disability Standard 2009 will also offer EFD the opportunity to compare trends across a large group of UK employers as well as the chance for organisations taking part for the second or third time to see the progress they have made on disability.

For more facts and figures from the Disability Standard click here.