Disability Awareness Training
Increase your confidence in meeting the needs of your diverse workforce (and customers) by requesting disability awareness training. Training can be delivered in a variety of formats, including via our expert-led online courses which run year-round, live in-person or through self-paced eLearning.
Our comprehensive training covers a range of topics including:
- Removing visual barriers
- Removing hearing barriers
- Removing physical barriers
- Removing neurodiversity barriers
- Removing mental health barriers
We work with organisations of all types and sizes and understand each client will be at a different stage in their accessibility and inclusion journey and have different requirements, and our services reflect this.
Explore our online role-based training courses for individuals or contact us about your team and/or organisation training requirements and we will create a bespoke proposal to meet your needs.
What is disability awareness training?
Disability awareness training helps build understanding of the diverse experiences, needs, and rights of disabled people. Through real-life examples, it highlights the unintentional barriers we may create and demonstrates practical workplace adjustments that foster empathy and confidence.
You’ll gain actionable guidance on removing barriers - whether through communication strategies or by considering how your physical environment supports accessibility. The training also introduces assistive technologies that can eliminate obstacles and improve efficiency for everyone.
The goal isn’t just to remove barriers, but to prevent them from arising in the first place. Requesting disability awareness training for your organisation is a proactive step toward creating and sustaining an accessible, inclusive workplace, and will help you to better understand your diverse customer base.
Watch our short video with examples of the kind of things you'll learn on our training:
Why choose AbilityNet?
We are a global leader in web and digital accessibility, based in the UK, with one of the biggest expert team of specialist Accessibility and Usability Consultants. We are a Founding Member of IAAP - the International Association of Accessibility Professionals, a Disability Confident Leader, and organise TechShare Pro - Europe’s largest annual accessibility and inclusion gathering.
2,979 professionals trained on a range of topics last year
97% of people rated our training as 'Excellent' or 'Good' last year
Much of our training is led by individuals with lived experience of disabilities:
I found the demo of the screen reader really useful - amazing to actually see/hear from someone who uses one rather than just reading about the theory of the tools which don't get the messages across for me as well as today's session did.
- attendee of our Removing visual barriers course
I found Rina's authentic and open conversation about her experience really insightful and helped my confidence in how to work better with people with neurodiversity conditions, and for my own disability. Thank you!
- attendee of our Removing neurodiversity barriers course
Going through mental health difficulties and feeling like you have to hide them at work can be incredibly isolating, especially in our current times... it has given us a jumping off point to have some interesting conversations as a team.
- attendee of our Removing mental health barriers course
Clients we've helped
We are a UK charity that has been a global leader in web and digital accessibility for over 25 years. Read the case studies below to learn how we help our clients achieve their accessibility and inclusion goals.
Disability awareness training at the University of Derby
The University of Derby received disability awareness training before undertaking a Digital Accessibility Maturity Model assessment
Auditing and accrediting Blind Veterans UK's website
After expert user testing and auditing, the Blind Veterans UK site received our accreditation and praise from the BBC
Frequently asked questions about disability awareness training
We have answered some of the commonly asked questions we receive about disability awareness training below (please click to expand).
Disability awareness training helps organisations create an inclusive environment where everyone can thrive. It reduces unconscious bias, breaks down misconceptions, and ensures employees understand legal responsibilities under equality legislation.
Beyond compliance, it promotes empathy and practical confidence, enabling teams to support colleagues and improving productivity, which can result in increased revenue and profit margins.
Furthermore it enables a greater understanding of your diverse customer base and better equips you to respond to their needs, with the spending power of disabled people and their households estimated to be £274 billion a year in the UK.
Ultimately disability awareness training strengthens workplace culture, improves accessibility, and can even boost innovation by valuing diverse perspectives.
Further reading:
Many factors influence how much disability awareness training can cost, including number of recipients, whether the training is online or in-person, and how the training is led. For these and other reasons there is no fixed price for disability awareness training and the requirements often need to be scoped first.
Our online year-round courses for individuals are typically around £120.00-£165.00 for not for profits, and £165.00-£210.00 for for profits, per person. On-demand recordings are also available at a reduced rate of £48.00. Our in-house training for teams prices start from £2,000.00, and eLearning licence costs vary according to your needs.
We offer a range of training for human resources (HR) roles and that relate to working practices, that includes topics such as:
- How to create accessible digital spaces for Neurodivergent users
- How to do accessible, inclusive onboarding and induction
- How to develop inclusive, accessible career progression practices
- How to develop accessible, inclusive collaboration and teamwork
Our training can be delivered online for individuals, in-person for teams or via eLearning modules for your organisation. View all training for HR roles and working practices.
Cognitive differences and neurodivergent conditions include autism, dyslexia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), dyspraxia and Tourette Syndrome.
Neurodiversity awareness training can be considered a subset of disability awareness training, which focusses on:
- Describing the types of neurodiverse differences people experience
- Explaining through real life stories the unintentional barriers we can create that impact on colleagues or learners living with neurodiverse needs
- Explaining the types of assistive technologies used to remove or alleviate barriers
- Providing advice and tips on how to remove barriers in your workplace or educational institution or avoid creating them in the first place
Find out more about our Disability Awareness Training on removing neurodiversity barriers in the workplace.
It is important to adopt inclusive workplace practices, such as conducting routine disability awareness training, regardless of whether you believe you currently employ disabled staff. In reality, the assumption "we don't have disabled staff" is usually incorrect.
Recent data shows there are 16.8 million disabled people in the UK, representing 25% of the population, including 24% of working‑age adults. Disability isn’t always visible: a large portion of disabilities are non‑visible, which means it’s highly likely that some of your staff already have a disability or specific access needs, whether disclosed or not.
Disability prevalence also increases with age, and disability rates rise significantly among older workers. This means that, even if employees are not disabled today, many will acquire a disability during their working life.
Furthermore, inclusive practices don’t just support people with permanent disabilities - they benefit everyone. Microsoft’s Persona Spectrum illustrates how the same barrier affects people with permanent, temporary, and situational disabilities. For example, captions help a Deaf colleague, someone recovering from an ear infection, and someone joining a call from a noisy environment.
By embedding disability awareness and inclusive design into everyday practice, you create a workplace that is more equitable, productive and welcoming for all staff - not just those who identify as disabled.
Find out more
If you would like to find out more about our full range of services please consider downloading our Digital Accessibility Services brochure, or alternatively you can get in contact with us.
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