Pandemic Stories from the UK:Disabled people's Experience of Employment in Socially Distanced Times

This paper will explore the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on disabled people's employment experience and outcomes in the United Kingdom. It will draw upon secondary research conducted by trade unions and disabled people's organisations during 2020-2021 to highlight the significant and worrying trend in redundancies and job loss targeted at disabled workers. For anyone interested in equality, diversity and inclusion issues that relate to working lives, this presentation is a stark reminder that despite anti-discrimination legislation (The Equality Act, 2010, previously Disability Discrimination Act, 1995 in England), disabled people face negative perceptions of their ability to work and to be productive employees. The questions addressed in this presentation will make you stop and think about the moral and ethical judgements that are being made by society and employers. They will lead us to a deeper consideration of underlying cultural responses to the impaired body/mind and the all too often ableist nature of the organisation of work