Looking for advice on creating a Disability Discount at my workplace

emilyoneal

Hello everyone!

I'm looking for some advice. I work for an e-learning platform and I really want it to be inclusive, I understand having a disability can massively affect income and disposable income, and I'd love for our educational courses to be more affordable. I have proposed introducing a disability discount and my manager has green lighted it! I do not have a disability myself, so I have been doing research into what the terms of the discount could be, though a lot of resources online give advice to disabled people on the discounts they're entitled to, there isn't much advice for businesses looking to supply discounts.

The problem I am having, is for our other discounts (NHS/student), we ask them to supply evidence of their employment/studies, such as a university email or a staff number. We would also require some sort of evidence of a customer's disability to supply the discount, but this feels like a very tricky thing to ask for, as I don't want to define and limit "disability" by asking for specific evidence that may not apply to everyone who is disabled. From my research, I've thought about asking for evidence of PIP or DLA. I have asked my aunt, who has mobility problems and has had multiple brain surgeries, and she has advised asking for a letter of entitlement from their doctor. My friend with ME has given me a lot of insight into illnesses that aren't officially defined as a disability in the UK, and I don't want to exclude people by asking for specific evidence.

Essentially, I am asking for advice about what is an appropriate form of evidence that is accessible to most disabled people? And for some advice on how I could word this on our website, I would like to keep it quite vague so I can speak with our disabled customer's one-to-one over email so I can use my discretion when giving discounts.

Would really appreciate any insight you guys may have!

Thanks,
Emily

Ross_Alumni

Thanks for your question @emilyoneal, it's great to hear you are looking to introduce a discount for disabled people. I hope others will be able to provide their thoughts, but I just wanted to welcome to the community, and say that I think having a range of criteria would be a good thing to consider, rather than focussing in on one in particular. That way people will have plenty of options open.

emilyoneal

Thanks @Ross_Scope, totally agree accepting a range of criteria is likely the best option. I will have a look through other posts when I have a moment to learn as much as I can about the topic. But yes, any advice about what to do/say and what not to do/say would be a massive help!