Businesses need to be more ‘disability confident’

A recent forum comprising people living with disability, hospitality leaders and accessibility advocates highlighted the urgent need for the industry to become more inclusive, with a powerful call for businesses to build “disability confidence” across every level of operations. Held at the Urban Farmer Project in the City of London, the sold-out and 100% fully attended event, The aha Forum, in partnership with Thomas Franks, was hosted by the Accessible Hospitality Alliance.

The afternoon brought together employers, people with lived experience of disability, senior hospitality leaders, human resources teams, sector champions and global music star Emmanuel Kelly to drive forward the conversation around accessibility in the industry. Seven themed roundtables enabled all attendees to dive deeper into issues such as accessible leadership, workplace culture, recruitment, customer confidence and the business case for inclusion.

The message throughout the day was clear: despite some efforts, fear and discomfort still dominate conversations around inclusion, with many organisations feeling unsure of how to initiate conversations and action or concerned about the long-term implications of change.

‘Fear of getting it wrong’
“There is a fear, a fear of getting it wrong, of saying the wrong thing,” said Kellie Rixon MBE, general manager at The Marcliffe Hotel and Spa and a leading contributor to the forum. “But we can’t let fear be the barrier anymore.

“Hospitality by definition should be accessible and inclusive. But we’re not. There are pockets, but we need to do much more.”

Disability researcher and advocate Shelley Cowan added: “Small changes. That’s all we need. We don’t need to revolutionise anything but take meaningful small steps every day to bring about change.”

You may also be interested in…