Difability Standard Version 1.0
What has your organisation actually done to turn different abilities into real opportunities?
The Standard does not replace the Equality Act, Disability Confident, accessibility standards or other legal or regulatory requirements.
The six pillars
Every assessed level is measured against all six. Each pillar has a guiding question.
Leadership and accountability
Who is responsible, and how are they held to account?
Who leads disability inclusion, how progress is reviewed and decided, and how the organisation keeps the Difability Commitment. In a small organisation this is usually the owner or manager, and how they act when something goes wrong.
People, employment and progression
Do you recognise ability?
Recruitment, employment, development and progression: vacancies written inclusively, adjustments during recruitment, how managers respond when someone shares a disability or health condition, and whether disabled employees progress.
Accessibility and adjustments
Can people participate, and what happens when someone needs something different?
Physical, digital and communication accessibility appropriate to the organisation, and an adjustments process that works: need identified, conversation, adjustment considered, decision, implementation and review. We look for proportionate action, not a perfect building.
Customers, services and products
Can disabled people use what you offer?
How customers and service users find, use and give feedback on what the organisation offers: accessibility information before a visit, alternative formats, accessible websites and services, and how complaints are handled.
Procurement, enterprise and opportunity
What real opportunities have you created?
Real opportunities: apprenticeships, work experience, training that leads somewhere, self-employment support, contracts, supplier opportunities and enterprise. Genuine opportunity, not publicity.
Lived experience and measurable outcomes
What did you hear, what changed, and how do you know?
How disabled people influence decisions, whether people are paid for substantial co-design work, and what changed as a result, shown with evidence and measured over time.
Four kinds of evidence
Every substantive answer carries one of four evidence classifications. Two organisations could both answer yes, while one has ticked a box and the other can show the practice happening.
1 of 4
Declared
The organisation says it happens.
2 of 4
Documented
A policy or document supports it.
3 of 4
Demonstrated
Evidence shows it happening in practice.
4 of 4
Verified
Difability checked suitable evidence itself.
In proportion to size
The questions an organisation answers depend on its size. People means employees and regular volunteers together.
- Small
- 1 to 49 people
- Medium
- 50 to 249 people
- Large
- 250 people or more
A two-person café can become Difability Recognised.
We do not ask a small organisation for a disability inclusion governance strategy or quarterly board figures. We ask a question it can answer from its own work:
“If a disabled employee or customer needed an adjustment, what would you do? Show us an example if you’ve had one.”
The same principle applies at every size: evidence in proportion to the organisation.
How answers are scored
Trained assessors score each answer from 0 to 4, so that every assessment is consistent. The scores are used inside Difability only. There is no public score: the public outcome is the level achieved.
- 0
- No evidence
- 1
- Commitment or early action
- 2
- Established practice
- 3
- Demonstrated practice and evidence
- 4
- Strong practice with measurable impact
Gates that a high score cannot outweigh
A strong website cannot make up for evidence of discriminatory practice. Each gate has to be met on its own.
- Real opportunity
- The organisation shows opportunities that people actually received, not a policy or publicity about them.
- No discriminatory practice
- Any evidence of discriminatory practice stops the award, however strong the rest of the evidence is.
- Listening leads to change
- For Certified and above: one concrete example of what disabled people told the organisation, what it changed and the result.
- Every pillar counts
- Each of the six pillars must reach the level’s minimum. A strong pillar cannot make up for a weak one.
Outcomes, not only activity
We ask about what an organisation does, not what it says it values. Instead of “Do you value inclusion?”, an assessment asks three things, each harder than the last.
At every level
“Give us an example.”
At higher levels
“Show us the evidence.”
Ultimately
“What changed?”
Safeguards and data protection
Do not upload identifiable medical records or unnecessary personal health information as evidence. Evidence concerning individuals should normally be anonymised or redacted.
Information about a person’s disability can be health information, which the law protects as special category personal data. Difability is built not to collect it: no assessment question asks about anyone’s condition, and the rule above is shown before every upload.
If a file contains health information it should not, staff delete it and ask the organisation for a redacted copy. The privacy notice explains what we keep and for how long.
The Difability Commitment
Every member signs it. It is the starting point for every level.
We recognise that disability and long-term health conditions can create real barriers.
We believe disability does not mean inability.
We commit to recognising people’s different abilities, listening to individual needs, removing unnecessary barriers and creating genuine opportunities for inclusion, participation, employment and enterprise.
We will seek evidence of progress, listen when we fall short and continue improving.
Different Abilities. Real Opportunities.
The Improvement Plan
An organisation that does not qualify yet receives an Improvement Plan, and applies again when it is ready.
Where you are now
What the assessment found, pillar by pillar.
What is missing
The practice or evidence the level needs that is not there yet.
Three actions
Practical steps the organisation can take next.
The evidence for each one
What will show that each action is done.
A check-in date
Between 3 and 9 months ahead. The organisation confirms it or moves it.
From the Standard to a level
The six levels say what each one asks for and what an organisation may say once it holds it. Every decision is made by an Approver who took no part in the assessment.