Supporting Learners with Disabilities: How Onefile Helps Providers Deliver Inclusive Learning

Disability Pride Month takes place throughout July, celebrating the great contribution disabled people make to our society.

But did you know that although 16.8 million people in Britain – a quarter of the population – live with some form of disability, only 54% of disabled adults are in employment?

This figure, from charity Scope, is 28% lower than that for working people without a disability, which clearly illustrates why we need to change perceptions and convert awareness into action. According to the Disability Policy Centre, failure to help disabled people into rewarding work costs the Treasury around £38 billion a year in lost productivity and tax take. By closing the disability employment gap, disabled people get the opportunity they deserve to shine at work – while massively boosting the UK’s economy.

Barriers to employment  

Disabled jobseekers can often encounter many obstacles when looking for work. Barriers to securing a job might include unconscious employer bias, inflexible recruitment procedures and incompatible software and equipment.

And finding an apprenticeship can also be especially challenging for young people with a disability. Taking that first step into the world of work can be hard for any school or college leaver, but it can be so much more difficult for those needing additional support.

Fortunately, there is help available to employers looking to employ a disabled person, thanks to government schemes such as Access to Work which is designed to:

• Recruit disabled people with the skills employers need
• Retain an employee who develops a disability or health condition (keeping their valuable skills and saving both time and money hiring a replacement)
• Show that employers value and will support their employees by having good employment policies and practices

When looking to hire an apprentice, training providers and employers evaluate any learning difficulties or disabilities the applicant has during initial assessment.

And, once they’ve been assessed, and depending on their level of need, apprentices with a disability, health condition or mental health condition might be eligible for a grant for things such as:

• British sign language (BSL) interpreters, lip speakers or note takers
• Adaptations to their vehicle so they can get to work
• Taxi fares to work or a support worker if they can’t use public transport
• A support worker or job coach to help them in their workplace

How Onefile supports learners with disabilities and additional needs  

At Onefile we have always championed inclusion, with all our products designed and developed with learners’ different learning methods, patterns and styles in mind.

We want to make sure that no learner, whatever their personal circumstances, disability or challenge, is left behind. That’s why our learner management system is constantly reviewed and updated – with, of course, input from the employers and training providers we look after.

Introducing Onefile Inclusion

And we’ve just taken our support a step further with the announcement of our exciting new Inclusion module, available July 2026.

Introduced partly in response to Ofsted making inclusion standalone area in its reporting, this new software will make it even easier for providers to identify additional need and evidence learner support activity.

Under Ofsted’s new framework, inclusive practice now sits at the heart of what providers offer. It should inform their curriculum and lesson planning, pinpoint barriers to learning such as disability and ensure that tutors are trained in adaptive teaching techniques.

Learner support information is often held across multiple systems, spreadsheets and documents, making it difficult for assessors and tutors to evidence impact and consistency. Our new feature will address these issues, so this data is no longer fragmented and piecemeal.

Inclusion helps providers capture, manage, and evidence learner support and inclusive practice in a structured, auditable way, involving support staff, ALS teams, tutors and learners. And, as it’s available as standard with Onefile’s Eportfolio, there’s no need to create or import separate learners within the module.

To learn more about how you can use Inclusion to support learners with disabilities, contact us for a discovery call.