How does workplace culture impact disability disclosure? Managing Director of Bascule Disability Training, Chris Jay explains the impact of secrecy and how a cultural shift can enhance openness…
Improving workplace culture is a high priority for many companies, given the evidence that it can boost performance, enhance employee satisfaction, engagement, belonging, and retention. However, one cultural element that is challenging to measure—and therefore hard to improve—is openness around disclosing hidden or non-apparent disabilities. In other words, if your workplace culture causes employees to feel compelled to keep their disabilities hidden, it can be incredibly hard to identify that you have a problem in the first place.
Now, you may be under the impression that this is an issue that won’t impact your organisation but consider this- 16.1 million people in the UK have a disability, which is 24% of the population , and around 80% of those disabilities are invisible or non-apparent to third parties. That means that approximately 12.9 million people will, at certain times in their lives, face moments when they decide whether or not, to reveal their disability.
So, If employees perceive their workplace culture as unsupportive, they are likely to keep their disability private. Research from Bupa revealed that a massive 43% of all people with hidden disabilities choose not to reveal them in their workplace. Unfortunately, maintaining this negatively impacts health, career development, wellbeing, productivity, and more.
So, how do we create a culture that encourages openness around disability?
Raising confidence and building trust
The only way to develop a more inclusive workplace culture is by creating an improved sense of awareness, and by fostering a more positive understanding and new empathetic perspective of disability. This is best done through a reputable, user led, training provider (meaning they have lived experience of disability themselves). It’s also important that this training and development has the backing and participation of board level staff, and that their commitment to inclusivity is blatantly apparent to all internal teams.
Tick box, superficial e-learning packages should be avoided, and instead, training should aim to help staff develop a solid foundational understanding of disability through modules that consider aspects such as communication, etiquette, correct language, legislation, supportive behaviour and managing staff with disabilities.
It’s also worth considering that 67% of people in the UK feel awkward talking to people with disabilities, and your staff may show signs of feeling like this, thus preventing disability disclosure. This awkwardness is mainly developed through a simple lack of experience of speaking to people with disabilities, and limited knowledge, and can be effectively resolved by enhancing familiarity, understandings and perceptions of disability.
Another insightful area to consider is why staff may be keeping their disability a secret. Further research from Bupa revealed that 30% of respondents with disabilities choose not to disclose as they don’t want to cause a fuss with colleagues . 25% didn’t want to be treated differently and 23% said they had worries that they would not be believed. Interestingly, these statistics lead to the finding that disability is largely hidden due to the fear of the reaction from colleagues. This would indicate that for many businesses a significant gap in awareness exists.
After all, if staff were properly trained to have a good understanding of disability, there would be no danger of them potentially doubting colleagues, fussing unnecessarily, perceiving reasonable adjustment as preferential treatment, or treating a person differently.
A comprehensive training module would educate staff around hidden disability and teach them that certain impairments (such as multiple sclerosis for example), can on one day be without symptoms but the next day, cause debilitating mobility and pain issues. Knowledge of this will help colleagues to be more trusting, more empathetic and less judgemental. As staff gain knowledge, those with non-apparent disabilities would begin to feel more understood, and less likely to hide.
Cultural developments
Once a commitment to disability awareness is made, you could also consider unconscious bias training and onboard learning to ensure inclusivity is consistent and considered as an ongoing obligation. In my experience, introducing awareness training alone can sometimes be enough for staff to confidently reveal their disabilities. It has become a common occurrence for trainees to reveal they have an impairment in the middle of their training, right in front of their colleagues, as it has become apparent that their employer is evidently embracing accessibility and supporting its people.
After training, further cultural developments can be introduced to demonstrate your dedication to disability inclusion. As disability is considered across the wider business, within all teams and amongst all levels of seniority, it will naturally begin to embed itself within the company’s culture, identity, brand and ethos. This can be encouraged further by forming disability steering groups, forums or networks, with representatives from various teams and seniority levels, that work together to ensure disability has a voice when shaping wider company policies.
Creating accessible recruitment practices, enhancing both the physical and digital accessibility in your organisation, and adapting services and products to accommodate people with disabilities will further enhance your company’s approach to accessibility. Such initiatives will gradually foster a supportive culture, encouraging more staff to feel that they needn’t hide, as their organisation is understanding and supportive of disability.
Why should staff reveal their disabilities?
People with disabilities are under no legal obligation to disclose their condition and have every right to keep it private if they choose. However, substantial evidence shows that keeping a disability hidden can impact both performance and health, particularly by increasing stress. Stress is now a common part of modern work life, with 86% people feeling stressed at least once a month, and as many as one in nine (11%) experiencing stress every day . Physically, stress can lead to headaches, digestive problems, breathing issues, pain, and depression—symptoms that often overlap with those of many disabilities. For someone with a hidden disability, managing stress on top of their condition can intensify these challenges.
Imagine, for example a person with diabetes who has not revealed it to their manager. If a manager doesn’t know about their disability, they may ask them to work over lunch, or later than usual, unknowingly depriving them of breaks for medication or food. Inevitably, their health suffers, but also anxiety and stress can spike, putting them in danger whilst impacting job performance, wellbeing and so on.
Or, consider someone that has hidden the fact that they are neurodiverse and have a sensitivity to noise and bright lights. If they choose not to reveal this, their exposure to chatter, phones, fluorescent lighting and busyness may make concentration impossible, causing distress anxiety, and even burnout. But small reasonable adjustments, like desk relocation, providing noise-cancelling headphones, adding softer lighting, providing flexible hours or homeworking options, could potentially change everything, allowing them to thrive. Once disability is revealed, reasonable adjustments can become a solution that can easily alleviate many issues.
Hiding a disability can also effect a person’s wellbeing, happiness and their ability to be a cohesive part of a team. For example, research has revealed that hiding a disability can lead to feelings of sadness, anxiety, isolation, and nervousness. An American study found that employees who openly disclose their disability are over twice as likely to feel happy or content at work (65% vs. 27%) and less likely to regularly feel anxious (18% vs. 40%) or isolated (8% vs. 37%).
Bullying and toxic behaviours
Another area of workplace culture to consider is the tolerance of bullying and toxic behaviours. Again, this may sound like something from a workplace of yesteryear, but you’d be surprised to learn that research from 2024 revealed that 57% of people believe shouting in the workplace does not count as bullying, 35% of people do not think jokes about a person could be considered bullying and 21% of people did not think that spreading rumours about a person was bullying.
If your workplace culture inadvertently permits personal jokes or insults, these could be targeting traits linked to someone’s undisclosed disability. For instance, calling someone “slow,” “lazy,” or joking about their mental abilities can have a deeply harmful impact on an individual, and will most certainly cause someone to refrain from being open about a disability they may be hiding.
To change this culture, establish and circulate firm, zero-tolerance policies against bullying that specifically safeguards employees with disabilities, and roll out training that promotes respectful communication, and illustrates which behaviours are inappropriate.
Final word…
In summary, cultivating a workplace culture that encourages the open disclosure of disabilities will always bring transformative benefits. As well as improve accessibility and strengthen inclusion, it promotes a foundation of empathy, understanding and respect, while actively reducing toxic behaviours. As your employees observe this cultural shift, those who may have previously hidden their disabilities will feel increasingly supported and will be much more likely to become open about their disability, empowering them to contribute their most authentic and best selves to the organisation.
