Disability confident interview - fair chance?

[BlxckDay]

So the employer I’m interviewing for has this on their website "Disability Confident - We are proud to be a member of the Disability Confident scheme certified as Level 2 Disability Confident Employer. This helps us to successfully employ and retain people with disabilities and health conditions. Disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for a vacancy will be guaranteed an interview. The Equality Act 2010 (Disability Discrimination Act 1995 for NI) defines a disabled person as someone who has a physical or mental impairment that has sa substantial and long-term negative effect on their ability to do daily activities."

If they’ve only offered me an interview because I’m disabled (which I am I’ve already told them) do I still have a fair chance of getting hired or are they inviewing me because they have to?

I'm job hunting and have a few interviews and don't want to waste time (mine and theirs) if they're only interviewing me because they have to?

(If that makes sense)

If you're not sure then next time you can select the 'prefer not to say' option if you'd rather they just take you on your own merit. They possibly are just interviewing you because they have to but equally they might love your CV and want to see you. You'll have to just go and see, you'll probably get the vibe either way during the interview. Good luck.

I think impossible to predict, but good luck anyway

They are interviewing you because you met all the required criteria and because you are disabled.

Disabled can have a pretty far reaching category in this instance, people with asthma and diabetes are just as eligible to use it as some one in a wheel chair etc so you won't be the only one and it's quite likely that the actual people interviewing you will know you ticked the disabled box unless they are putting additional adjustments in place.

They’re not interviewing you because you’re disabled, they’re interviewing you because you meet the essential criteria. DCS doesn’t mean a guaranteed interview.

If you're worried could you ask? I applied for my current role& was honest about my disabilities upfront. I thought the interview was just a tick-box but actually they liked my CV & have made accommodations to the role so I can do it.

Go along, treat it as 'practice' - you'll soon get the 'vibe' if they're only on a box-ticking exercise. And good luck.

It could be either to be honest. I've interviewed people who ticked the box who I wanted to see, and others that did meet the essentials but weren't top of my list but I had to see them, thus meaning to see the people I did want, I had to interview more candidates than I would have chosen. It's a good scheme in many ways but also a bit of a nightmare for managers on occasion.

I don't think you can ever know if you're my person a or person b.

It means you met the essential criteria. Whether that give you a chance depends on the other candidates. Sometimes there might be quite a few who more than meet the essential criteria and your chances are low other times there might not be. I have hired people who have got an interview through the scheme so it's absolutely worth a shot.

Yes, I've recruited from the scheme too. Best of luck.

My old work place offered this, we actually had quite a high rate of successful disabled candidates and it worked well. It didn’t really swing us either way, it just meant that if we had lots meeting the essential criteria one would be a disabled candidate. We got feedback though it encouraged applicants to apply. We had some good long term staff who maybe we wouldn’t have connected with as the job isn’t often viewed as disability friendly (teaching… for obvious reasons)

This, absolutely this. Hope you get it, if you want it!