Voices at Work – Co-production employment project report now available

Voices at Work is a co-produced research project led by GCIL (Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living), funded by Glasgow Futures and delivered between October 2025 and May 2026. The project explored the experiences of disabled people in the workplace, with a focus on understanding what supports or undermines sustainable employment.

The project engaged 47 participants through workshops, interviews and wider engagement activity, with lived experience shaping both the process and outcomes.

Findings demonstrate that barriers to sustaining employment are rarely driven by disability itself. Instead, they are shaped by workplace culture, inconsistent support and limited understanding of disability. Survey findings showed that 68%* of participants identified workplace culture as a barrier to sustaining employment, 51% identified in-work support, and 43% identified a lack of reasonable adjustments. Participants consistently highlighted that day-to-day attitudes, communication and relationships had a greater impact on their ability to remain in work than formal policies or procedures.

Support was often dependent on individual managers rather than embedded organisational practice, resulting in inconsistent experiences. Only 47% of participants felt their line manager understood disability or health conditions, while 35% said only somewhat and 18% said no. Participants also described challenges around disclosure, gaps and delays in reasonable adjustments, and a lack of ongoing, proactive support. 40% identified feeling a lack of peer support as a barrier to sustaining employment, contributing to isolation and placing responsibility on individuals to navigate barriers themselves. While disability training and policies were often in place, participants highlighted that these did not always translate into meaningful understanding of how workplace culture, management practices, communication and adjustments affect someone’s ability to stay in work.

In response, Voices at Work developed a set of co-produced recommendations for a toolkit of practical solutions. These include recommendations for an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training module to improve understanding and communication, and for a peer-led support service offering ongoing advice, advocacy and shared learning. Together, these recommendations set out how more consistent and sustainable systems of support could be created. The report concludes that improving access to employment alone is not sufficient. Sustainable employment requires proactive, inclusive and flexible workplace practices, embedded across organisations and shaped by lived experience.

For a full pdf copy of the report please click here.

For a plain text version of the report please click here.