The 色中色 is committed to achieving an educational and working environment which provides equality of opportunity and freedom from unlawful discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, nationality, ethnic origin, gender, marital status, disability, religious or political beliefs, age, sexual orientation or offending background.
We are an accredited Disability Confident Leader (level 3) and we are committed to building disability confidence and supporting disabled staff.
色中色 has successfully renewed Disability Confident Leader Status.
is a government initiative which aims to enable employers to engage proactively with disabilities and to improve the recruitment and retention of disabled workers for their skills and talent.
The scheme has , each requiring additional commitment and evidence of action than the preceding level. The official accreditation of Level 3 ‘leader’, the most advanced level, was first achieved in 2020.
The Disability Confident scheme has been live since November 2016. It supports the Government’s commitment to help one million more disabled people into work within the next ten years.
The 色中色 had previously operated under the Disability Symbol ‘Two Ticks’ scheme and were keen to move over to the Disability Confident Scheme in order to continue to attract, recruit, retain and promote disabled people within the workplace.
What we did and why
All employers start at Level 1 and progress through the scheme at their own pace. The journey is as follows:
- Level 1: Disability Confident Committed
- Level 2: Disability Confident Employer
- Level 3: Disability Confident Leader
As a Disability Confident Leader, we are committed to disability equality and a positive approach towards disability, challenging negative attitudes and ensuring that all staff can achieve their potential.
Jane Forrest from was our external validator and assessed our renewal application, reflecting on the quality of our self-assessment and what has been achieved to date:
I was blown away and impressed with all the progressive good work you have been doing to make the University more welcoming and inclusive for all.
Prof Rajani Naidoo, Vice-President Community and Inclusion: I would like to say a big thank you and well done to all the colleagues involved in the renewal submission, the work carried out will have an institution-wide impact for our community. University’s senior team is incredibly pleased to have renewed our Disability Confident Leader Level status until 2026. It’s an important piece of work that reinforces our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, specifically in relation to disability, mental health and neurodiversity.
What does this mean for me?
As part of our Disability Confident self-assessment, we identified actions that will further support inclusion of people with disabilities and ensure we have a co-ordinated approach addressing issues, such as:
- continued improvements in the accessibility of the University’s physical and digital infrastructure
- promoting better understanding of 'hidden' disabilities (e.g. neurodiversity, hearing and visual impairments)
- promoting good practices (e.g. the aFLAME Disability Network for Staff and PGR students, Neurodiversity booklet)
- ensuring consistency of availability of support services across the University
Richard Brooks, Director of HR: Ensuring that we recruit, retain and develop diverse talent is immensely important to our University, and the recommendations drawn from our independent validation will allow us to further develop our recruitment processes to be even more inclusive for candidates with disabilities and once appointed, support retention and further development. We are absolutely delighted that our striving to keep our inclusive practice around Disability at the very highest level has been recognised by our assessors.
In particular we will:
- Ensure that our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible
- Guarantee to offer an interview to all applicants with a disability provided they meet the essential criteria for a role
- anticipate and provide reasonable adjustment as required
- support any existing employee who acquires a disability or long term health condition enabling them to stay in work.
Disabled applicants should indicate in the Equality of Opportunity section of the application form if they wish their application to be given consideration under the Disability Confident scheme.
If you are invited to interview, please advise the recruitment administrator what adjustment you would require at the interview in as much detail as possible to enable arrangements to be put into place.
As part of our commitment to Disability Confidence, we ask all applicants if they want to be considered under this scheme. By opting-in to this scheme, you are disclosing that you have a disability solely for the purpose of the interview guarantee and we will not assume nor infer that you wish to disclose or record your disability in any other way – including any reasonable adjustments you may need if you are employed.
For feedback on job applications submitted under the Disability Confident scheme, please contact: Sarah Sutton, Head of Talent Acquisition.
