What can employers learn from the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games?

Blog posts

4 Sep 2024

Claudia Plowden Roberts, Research Fellow

Follow @claudiaplowrob 

After the success with the Olympic Games in Paris 2024, millions are now watching 4,400 Paralympians from 168 delegations compete in 22 sports in the Paralympic Games. With 46% of disabled people not in work and a disability employment gap of 28% in the UK, employers can learn from some of the lessons coming from the Paralympic Games and make changes within their workplaces to become more inclusive.

The Paralympics show how disability can be different for each individual, highlighting the range of disabilities in the classifications and categories for each sport. Each sport has a minimum impairment criteria that athletes must be eligible for and sports range in how many ‘classes’ they have. Even within one classification, there will be athletes with completely different disabilities, both visible and invisible. However, the Paralympic Games are not available to all disabled people, especially for people with a learning disability who can only compete in three sports, and para-athletes with severe disabilities are still excluded.

This emphasises the need for the International Paralympic Committee to increase opportunities to make the Games truly inclusive. The diverse range of disabilities represented in the Paralympic Games also highlights how people will need different support and/or adjustments and this will be the case within workplaces. A disabled individual's job options should not be limited just because they have a disability. Employers need to be able to discuss needs on an individual basis as a person’s disability and circumstances could be different from someone else with the same diagnosis or label. 

The Games also challenge the stereotype that disabled people can’t be successful or achieve their goals. They highlight what can be done, rather than what can’t be done and encourage the general public to engage in a broader discussion about disabled people, beyond harmful stereotypes and preconceived perceptions about ability.

In many of the sports at the Paralympics, disabled athletes compete in the same sports as Olympic athletes who do not have a disability and reasonable adjustments are what make this a reality. These reasonable adjustments will differ from person to person and between sports but they allow para-athletes to reach their full potential. It is important to note that not all para-athletes are full-time or elite athletes so many will return home to communities and workplaces where barriers continue to exist.

Para-athletes have modifications that allow them to participate which may be expensive, but reasonable adjustments in the workplace do not need to be expensive or difficult to implement. The Access to Work scheme can help get support for individuals who are disabled or have a physical or mental health condition to get or stay in work. Changes can be small but have a great impact on disabled individuals.

On the other hand, the potential negative impact on perceptions of disabled people from the Games has been raised. Jane Hatton, the CEO of the disability jobs board, Evenbreak, criticised how the Channel 4 campaign for previous Paralympic Games described para-athletes as superhuman, explaining that a disabled person “can’t be an ordinary person getting on with their lives as best as they can, they must either be a benefit scrounger, or a superhuman hero”. Nonetheless, she welcomes their campaign for the Paris 2024 Games, “Considering What?”, which portrays Paralympians taking on ‘forces that don’t distinguish between any of us’, including gravity, friction and time, with the tagline – ‘excellence is excellent, no caveats’.

However, Jane warns that attitudes such as “these disabled people can break world records, and you can’t even get a job” may become more likely. Therefore, it is important that employers challenge stereotypes and patronising attitudes towards disabled applicants and employees. Activity Alliance highlights how disabled people are less than half as likely to ‘see people like them’ playing, working, and volunteering in sports and physical activity, but by increasing the visibility and understanding of disabled people, stereotypes and negative perceptions can be changed or removed completely.

Working together to support disabled employees is crucial for support to be holistic and sustainable. As a coach would work with a para-athlete, managers and employers should work with employees to understand what support and/or reasonable adjustments are necessary in their workplace. This should not be a one-size-fits-all approach, and individuals with the same disability may benefit from different types of support. There may also be benefit from reflecting on what has worked well in other situations in the past and considering how this could be helpful now.

For many, the London 2012 Games were seen as a turning point for attitudes towards disabled people in the UK, with Spirit of 2012 finding that 70% of people believe that the London 2012 Games had a positive impact on attitudes towards disabled people. The increasing number of ParalympicsGB athletes sent to each Games highlights the more progressive attitude towards disability in the UK. How employers build upon this legacy and change in attitude is important for disability inclusion within workplaces and beyond.

With attitudes changing and awareness of disability improving, now it is more important than ever that employers implement reasonable adjustments and support strategies for current and future disabled employees. Everyone has a role to play in removing barriers for disabled people and there are so many lessons that employers can learn from the Paralympics. These Games show how employers can make inclusion and accessibility the norm for employees with a disability.

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Any views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Institute as a whole.