Women with disabilities face exclusion on accounts of both gender and disability leading to multiplied marginalization both socially and economically in comparison to their male counterparts, said Hafsa Qadeer, the CEO and Founder of ImInclusive.

ImInclusive is a company that supports both job seekers with disabilities and employers on disability inclusion journeys with learning pathways and workshops. Hafsa was inspired by her brother, Ahmad who faces challenges as a person of determination.

“ImInclusive gave me a sense of purpose living in the UAE as well and for life, this is my calling,” she said during an interview with The HR Observer.

The work they do has driven grassroots change within MENA, as change agents they have spearhead the conversation on diversity, equity and inclusion in UAE, they are also shaping how disability inclusive HR looks in action by working with CHROs, Corporate HR, Government Sector Recruiters and breaking stereotypes on hiring of people with disabilities through capacity building of human resources professionals.

In this interview, she talks about the awareness to drive inclusivity through disrupting biases and embracing discomfort on the journey of learning to bring different people together.

How do you approach raising awareness about the importance of disability inclusion among employers and HR professionals?

Luckily, we are born in Abu Dhabi – a hub of diversity and inclusion in terms of prioritising gender equity, cultural inclusion and family-friendly workplaces. Our work is highly valued by HR professionals who also value disability inclusion as a critical priority, not just in UAE now but also in MENA.

Our evidence-based content shows that disability inclusive hiring is achievable and not to be feared: 1 in 6 of individuals identifying as people with disabilities globally translates to a large recruiter-driven effort required to build talent inclusion journeys within a workplace that do not leave out excellent talent based on their disability.

Disrupting biases and embracing discomfort on the journey of learning are the key elements of the journey of HR Professionals and Employers who are preparing themselves for the “Marathon of Inclusion” – there is no short sprint journey for achieving overnight inclusion in large complex organisations and we are working year-round, daily, with some of the largest corporates and MNCs across MENA to support their disability inclusion capacity building and hiring efforts. At any given time around the year, ImInclusive is servicing a 100 companies on their disability inclusion journeys. 

Inclusivity is a breath of fresh air, a consistent effort towards building workplaces of belonging, where every individual feels heard, respected and communicated with, it means the freedom to dream and the freedom to access opportunities without barriers.

Can you share a success story that ImInclusive has accomplished in advancing disability inclusion?

My favorite stories come from our own team at ImInclusive, while we have lives transformed by HR efforts across MENA in hiring people with disabilities, I have had the unique opportunity to begin ImInclusive as an initiative in 2019 with Ahmad Qadeer, my brother who lives with a disability Spinal Bifida meaning Ahmad is also enabled by a wheelchair. Ahmad started interning with ImInclusive going from learning the basics of email writing, idea sketching to now leading a department where he has his own accounts and candidate sets to manage. It’s been a thrill to witness his growth and see him from 2019 to 2024 grow into the mission and embrace the movement. 

From an external placements perspective, we have worked deeply with Dubizzle & Bayut, Hilton Worldwide, E&, Chalhoub Group, Visa and more clientele in terms of achieving support on disability inclusion – one of my most memorable journeys in this space is working with families where both siblings live with disabilities and each of them have been hired into a different role and different space to grow in their career pathways.

Today, our UAE Nationalisation support is also growing strongly in terms of hiring people of determination in the UAE. Most recently, on 6th of March 2024, we have executed a career fair dedicated to Emirati people of Determination’s hiring at the Arab Youth Center in Abu Dhabi. 

We are also partnered with the largest career fair drives of the country such as Tawdheef where we provide sign language support annually and drive candidates with disabilities to apply for jobs with us. 

Individuals both men and women with disabilities have been historically rejected from jobs, not because of their skill but because of their disability, and as current-age recruiters we must take the responsibility to acknowledge that the change starts with us.

What are some common misconceptions or challenges you encounter when advocating for disability inclusion, and how do you address them?

In my work of coaching organisations and employers on disability inclusion, I meet a lot of senior leaders who need to break through the fear of risk, fear of cost, and fear of  liability to achieve disability inclusion in the workplace.

The truth is usually different than the fears we believe in or an assumption we may make without enough research – providing disability inclusion support to employees is not expensive, they cost anywhere between US $100 to US $500 or even less or more on a case-by-case basis, but it is a one-time hiring cost in most cases. Today, disability inclusion in action also means options such as flexibility in terms of scheduling.

Today, having an inclusive workplace ready to welcome and communicate with someone living with a speech impairment, or offering hybrid working structures or four-day working weeks – all of these practices do not associate directly to a hiring spend and may already be incorporated into the team if the hiring decision-makers allow. 

Since our work in 2019, we have built a strong portfolio of excellent clientele and case studies. We have real-life examples of how MENA medium and large scale organisations have inclusive hiring practices within their organisation.

One example is the Giving Movement which has already set-up an internal percentage on hiring of people with disabilities within the workforce – their team is truth-driven and recognizes every talent’s skill in the market, instead of being fear-driven and making decisions based on limited population sets. 

Are women with disabilities treated differently than males who have the same challenges?

Women with disabilities face exclusion on accounts of both gender and disability leading to multiplied marginalization both socially and economically.

While we work hard to achieve a higher number of female candidates with disabilities, we are aware of our limitation when historically marginalized groups of women have had to work five times harder than males with disabilities to enter the workforce or get their choices and voices heard in the workplace. Intersectionality plays a huge role in disability inclusion and exclusion of groups is more intensive when intersectionality is involved.

As recruiters, we need to be aware that if we are meeting someone with a historically marginalized background, we need to be that much more flexible in offering them the opportunity to take the equity approach vs the equality approach in hiring. No talent had the same starting point in their journey and thus they cannot be all treated “equally” at the interviews by recruiters, equity means providing customized, equity-driven solutions in talent inclusion journeys on the accounts of multiplied marginalization and understanding the baggage an individual may carry by being rejected from an interview.

Individuals both men and women with disabilities have been historically rejected from jobs, not because of their skill but because of their disability, and as current-age recruiters we must take the responsibility to acknowledge that the change starts with us – during interviews, let’s focus on skills and capabilities first and find out if the person can do the job before we go deeper into our observations about any person. 

What does inclusivity mean to you?

For me, inclusion is a personal accountability framework that every person in HR needs to learn on a daily basis by unlearning our conditioned mindsets towards so many different groups and communities of people. HR is a field of creation of opportunities and inclusion in this field means embracing abundance, skill-first mindset and treating people with respect by acknowledging their fullest potentials and not judging them by “what cannot be” but rather opening the doors to “what can we achieve together”.

Inclusivity is a breath of fresh air, a consistent effort towards building workplaces of belonging, where every individual feels heard, respected and communicated with, it means the freedom to dream and the freedom to access opportunities without barriers.

Editor’s Note: This year, The HR Observer celebrates International Women’s Day by rolling out different perspectives on how to empower women.