The British Science Association is a Disability Confident Committed Employer, which means that we have committed to:

• ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible;
• communicating and promoting vacancies;
• offering an interview to disabled people;
• anticipating and providing reasonable adjustments as required;
• supporting any existing employee who acquires a disability or long-term health condition, enabling them to stay in work; 
• at least one activity that will make a difference for disabled people (see 'job shadowing' below).

Guaranteed interviews scheme

As part of our commitment to being a Disability Confident employer, all disabled* applicants who meet the ‘essential criteria’ for this vacancy will be offered an interview under our guaranteed interview scheme.

Candidates who wish to apply under the guaranteed interview scheme, you will be asked to indicate this when you submit your application by selecting ‘yes’ in the relevant box on the application form when asked during the application process. Applicants do not need to state any further information or declare their disability at the application stage.

The BSA follows government advice in that it is important to note that there may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people that meet the minimum criteria for the job. For example, in certain recruitment situations such as high number of applications, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people.

In these circumstances the employer could select the disabled candidates who best meet the minimum criteria for the job rather than all of those that meet the minimum criteria, as they would do for non-disabled applicants.

*The Disability Confident scheme’s definition of disability is in line with the Equalities Act 2010: “a physical or mental condition which has a long-term and substantial effect on your daily life".

Job shadowing

We have committed to offering work shadowing opportunities to people with disabilities. If you are interested in applying to shadowing a member of the team under our Disability Confident scheme, please contact [email protected].

Inclusive and accessible recruitment process for all

Regardless of whether candidates are are applying under the Disability Confident scheme or not, if someone is successful in being shortlisted, we will ask candidates with disabilities or long-term health conditions to let us know if they need any adjustments during the recruitment process.

Examples of reasonable adjustments might include:

• Offering an interview time that does not require travel during peak hours;
• Having additional time to read and prepare;
• Sharing the interview questions in advance;
• Writing questions down in the interview to help process information;
• Interview could take place in a quiet or different space;
• Extra time in test;
• Test details in advance;
• Option to use your own laptop for a test.