The squeeze for UK graduate posts hits disabled jobseekers hard

Charles Bloch believed he had the same potential as every other graduate with a first-class honours degree when he began looking for marketing jobs after university.

But, thousands of applications later, he failed to land a position. His lack of success, he says, had nothing to do with his academic ability. Rather it was his disability: a severe sight impairment.

After one interview experience, when he was immediately ushered out of the building, he stopped disclosing his disability on applications and began to leave his cane and guide dog behind. Bloch, who describes his vision as constantly out of focus, recalls telling many a recruiter at the end of an interview: “My disability is not a problem. I can do it.”

Bloch is not alone. With fewer positions being advertised and often large numbers of graduates applying for each one, disabled jobseekers are being hit especially hard. The average UK employer received 140 applications per graduate vacancy, a 30-year record and a 59 per cent rise on the previous year, the Institute for Student Employers, an organisation of companies and educational institutions, found in 2024.

Disabled jobhunters face more challenges than their non-disabled peers and, on average, have to submit 60 per cent more applications. Only about half secure an interview, compared with two-thirds of applicants without impairments, according to disability charity Scope.

They are at a disadvantage as more than half of employers say they are concerned about a disabled employee’s ability to do the job, the charity has found, while 37 per cent of disabled people believe companies will avoid hiring them. Those statistics come even as most large companies in the UK claim to support diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

In the US, the Trump administration is clamping down on companies embracing DEI values, programmes that over the past few years had led to more inclusive workplaces. Washington is increasing pressure on companies elsewhere, such as in Europe and the UK, to follow its lead and comply with an executive order banning DEI programmes, if they are a supplier or service provider to the American government.

“Companies say they can’t discriminate, but who is policing that?” Bloch asks, adding that often recruiters have a particular non-disabled type of person in mind but “when they see someone with a disability, they can’t help but think they don’t fit in that box”.

Disabled jobseekers can struggle with the application process. Sami Dar, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, says his disability meant he was falling behind his peers in finding a job because he did not have the time to produce “either the quantity or quality of applications” necessary because routine tasks take him longer. 

In 2022, Dar founded 10,000 Able Interns, a programme in the UK that provides internships for people with disabilities or long-term health conditions. “I had a lot to offer, but I was struggling to manufacture a chance to prove it,” he says. 

UK employers are bound by the Equality Act of 2010 to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people. These could be anything from hybrid working to assistive technology but, Dar says, such adaptations are often not a priority. Employers “are so focused on output and profit that they have less capacity to consider my needs as an individual”, he says. Adequate adjustments are often overlooked, he says, which has meant missing many work events, such as teambuilding weekends and social occasions.

A recruiter’s failure to make adjustments, such as extra time, blocks many disabled people from completing compulsory tasks in the application process. One visually impaired 22-year-old engineering student, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says she failed to finish assessments for her placement year on time as her requests for extra minutes went unanswered.

She urges companies to rethink their additional needs processes. “I am just as capable as any student and was very keen to apply for the roles I did,” she says. “These companies cannot call themselves ‘equal opportunities employers’ if they have recruitment systems that discriminate against people like me.”

David Clarke, who is blind, is chief executive of the British Paralympic Association. He says discrimination begins with an “experience deficit”, where disabled people often have a gap in their CVs since they do not have the same opportunities for internships, work experience or degrees.

Georgina Inson, head of recruitment at international law firm Simmons and Simmons, says businesses must be “as clear as possible” about accommodating reasonable adjustments. She recommends companies showcase their success stories in relation to hiring disabled applicants, which will encourage others to apply. “A constant re-evaluation is important so that, if there are things that people are getting wrong, they can be addressed,” she says.