‘Written off’ and struggling to get past an application
Syed found that interviews started to roll in when he stopped disclosing his disability.
A new report published by Activity Alliance has found the sport and physical activity sector needs to urgently address recruitment and retention strategies. Researchers conducted interviews with 25 people, highlighting barriers and enablers to disabled people becoming part of the sport and physical activity workforce. A series of case studies were published alongside the findings, these highlighted the lived experiences of those in the workforce.
As a child, Syed was frequently in hospital. He felt like he was ‘written off’ because of being disabled. After poor support throughout his school years, he finally got the one-to-one support he needed at college. He then found his grades improved, he started to play football, and his coach helped him to build his self-belief.
Syed wanted to use his experience to help others. This led him into coaching disability sport and studying sport development coaching at university.
“I started my career in disability sport because I have lived experience and felt I could make a difference to people’s lives.”
He works full time as a sport development officer for a local authority and has a voluntary role for a community sports charity. He found a key challenge in getting a paid role was getting past the application form. He went 7 months without getting an interview, until his sister suggested that he stop ticking the box to disclose a disability.
This appeared to turn around his fortunes, and at interview, because his health condition is fluctuating and not always obvious, Syed could avoid disclosing it - which he often did. He always had concerns about how he may be viewed by employers, compared to non-disabled candidates. But not disclosing could make it difficult to get an understanding of whether the job would really work for him in practice.
Once employed Syed had to vastly different experiences with employers. One organisation turned down his requests for flexible home working and he found his colleagues staring and making comments behind.
He now works for an organisation with a supportive and open culture in the team. He is trusted to complete work, without questions about when or where this happens, with one-to-one guidance from his manager. This support means he feels he can be himself, give his best and make a difference.
Read Syed’s case study: Syed - disclosure and reasonable adjustments
The ‘Research into the workforce gap - Disabled people in the sport and physical activity workforce’ is available to read on the Activity Alliance website.
