Research and development

The Disability Standard was originally researched and developed in partnership with our Research and Development (R&D) Group and with the 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.

R&D Group:
The R&D 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.

Diversity Change Model ©
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 in order 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.

To access Shapiro Consulting click: www.shapiroconsulting.co.uk

Disability Standard 2005 & 2007
After extensive research and development the Disability Standard was officially launched in 2005, with 80 organisations taking part. Feedback was sought from these participants and amends were made to the process for the Disability Standard 2007. 116 Organisations participated in 2007 and completed the online assessment.

Results from the 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 information on the results of the Disability Standard click 'results'.