To ask what you think if “Disability” box ticked on a job app

[Unsure2022]

A year ago I was diagnosed with a fairly serious disability
I receive PIP and also LCWRA.

I am desperate to work. Pre disability I was in a professional role in finance earning £65k. Full time out of the question and needs to be local... and I have found some positions that tick the box perfectly. One as office manager at a school for example.

My work coach has said that I should tick the disability box as it will only “work on my favour”. Really? Is that to meet certain requirements on employer disabled people? I don’t want to tick the box because my disability doesn’t require any adjustments to be made and I worry that some employers may think “oh goodness, no way do I want the hassle of a disable person and they’ll probably have loads of time off anyway” (my disability doesn’t cause hassle in the slightest and no more likely of being off sick as a non disabled person)

Please could someone in HR or indeed an employer give me some insight please?

@Bloodypunkrockers

I would see it as meaning we would have to make reasonable adjustments if we offered you the job

I struggle with the guaranteed interview bit, if I'm being honest. If you meet the criteria on the person spec you should get an interview.

If there are too many suitable candidate to interview everyone, why should some be guaranteed an interview while others miss out.

Because disabled people disproportionately miss out on employment due to direct and indirect discrimination, and a guaranteed interview levels the playing field some tiny amount and forces the employer to at least talk to the applicant (at which point they may or may not get over some of their prejudices), which they otherwise may not have done (often unfairly).

For example, only 32% of autistic people work at all, and only 16% work full time. That isn't because we are lazy or incapable of working. It's sometimes because employers won't consider us in the first place though.

As a hiring manager in civil service I would never know if someone had ticked the box or not at any stage.

The advantage to you would be that you’d be guaranteed an interview if your score was at a certain level regardless of where we set the pass mark - eg we set the pass mark at 4 because we have a lot of applications but you score 3.5 - ordinarily you wouldn’t be seen but you’d get an interview if you’d ticked the box because we interview all GIS candidates who score 3 or more.

@eurochick

My guess is it will work in your favour in large or public sector organisations where they either genuinely care about diversity or have targets to meet. My suspicion would be that it could work against you in smaller organisations where they might be worried about the costs of accommodating a disabled person or just unsure what to do.

I agree

I’m an employer in the voluntary sector
If anyone ticks the disability box we offer guaranteed interview scheme if essential criteria are met
We are also signed up to disability confident employer scheme
Beyond that I wouldn’t have any expectations it’s then based on performance at interview and work tests on the day
I’m disabled myself as are over 50% of my SMT

I work for a large private company. I've interviewed quite a few people. I don't know how many of them have disabilities as I don't see that information, either when short listing or interviewing. So I only know if they have a visible disability. My assumption as a hiring manager is that I can appoint the best candidate and HR will help me to sort out any reasonable adjustments.

My older son has mild cerebral palsy (mild learning disability, hearing impaired and wears hearing aids) Mentioned in his CV he played for a disability football team. Applied for job after job with major high street retailers and food outlets while at 6th form. Nothing. I looked over his CV again, edited it, only removing the disability football reference.....next job he applied for he was interviewed and hired. He is at uni and is reluctant in future application efforts to declare it. Don't blame him.

Where I work, the "demographics" questions (eg sex/age disability etc) are separated from the application. It's all online, and someone from HR matches the application with the person spec etc and gives points. If you get enough points, you get shortlisted. I'm fairly sure that anybody with a disability meeting the points criteria would get automatically shortlisted.
So the person interviewing may not know anyway!