Though accounting for 21% of the working age population in 2021, people with disabilities constituted only 15% of the total UK workforce.
There were 213,000 IT specialists in the UK with disabilities in 2021 – 11% of all IT specialists in the UK at that time.
If representation in IT were equal to the workforce 'norm' there would have been an additional 63,000 IT specialists in the UK with disabilities.
Representation of people with disabilities in the workforce varies across the UK from 7% of IT specialists in Northern Ireland to 17% in Scotland.
Representation of people with disabilities also varies with IT role - from just 6% of IT directors, to 17% of IT operations technicians.
Approximately 19% of all unemployed IT specialists in the UK had some form of disability during 2021 and the associated unemployment rate (2.6%) was notably higher than that recorded for IT specialists as a whole (1.8%).
Representation of IT specialists with disabilities appears lowest in the construction sector (9%) and highest amongst transport/communications companies (22%).
In 2020 the gross hourly pay for IT specialists with disabilities was £21phr - 98% of the remuneration for IT specialists without disabilities (£22phr).
In 2021 approximately 65% of IT specialists with disabilities held a degree/HE level qualification compared with 73% of those without disabilities and 44% of workers with disabilities in other occupations.
Around one in ten (11%) of IT specialists with disabilities hold a degree in an IT-related discipline.
IT specialists with disabilities are more likely to receive job-related education/ training with 30% stating it had been received in the previous 13 weeks during 2021 (compared with 25% of those without disabilities).
IT specialists with / without disabilities were most likely to have secured work by replying to an advert (33% and 30% respectively).
