Disabled teachers in England face significant discrimination at work and barriers to career progression, a study warns.

The research, from a team at the University of Cambridge, also shows that the Covid pandemic may have made life harder for disabled teachers because colleagues feel unable to accommodate their needs.

The authors, whose study is one of the first to examine the lives of disabled teachers in England, are now calling for urgent support for disabled teachers.

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The researchers interviewed 10 teachers in England for their reflections on what it means to be disabled and to pursue a career in mainstream schools - and while the study is small, they say it could explain why there is a “significant underrepresentation” of disabled people in teaching.

The difficulties faced by disabled teachers

The government’s 2016 census suggested that 0.5 per cent of the teaching workforce self-reported as having disabilities, compared with an estimated 16 per cent of working-age adults in the general population.

The study’s authors said further research in England and globally was vital “to ensure that disabled teachers’ lives do not remain on the margins”.

One interviewee, who had chronic fatigue syndrome ME and fibromyalgia, which causes pain all over the body, said she was told to “grit her teeth and get on with it” when she requested time off work.

The experience caused her to decide to quit primary teaching.

Another woman, who has the visual defect scotopic sensitivity, which meant she was unable to read green and red text, struggled with her school’s marking policy, which had green and red as the approved colours.

She devised a solution using a computer rather than handwriting to give feedback, but said she was disciplined for not following school procedures.

She also decided to leave primary teaching.

The study was carried out by Professor Nidhi Singal and Dr Hannah Ware, from the Cambridge Network for Disability and Education Research (CaNDER), in the university’s Faculty of Education.

Dr Ware said: “There has been a significant focus on making mainstream schools more inclusive for disabled children and others.

“However, disabled teachers, who are entrusted with enacting that ethos, seem to have been sidelined in those efforts.

“These findings raise a serious question: How can we possibly promote inclusivity in schools if it only extends to children?”

Disabled teachers ‘bring additional strengths to the classroom’

Prof Singal said: “Much of the evidence we gathered suggests that stresses in the system are amplified for disabled teachers and that part of the solution is to recruit more disabled people into the profession.

“For schools, that would constitute a double-win - not only are disabled teachers excellent role models, they also often bring additional qualities and strengths into classrooms.”

In line with some of the teachers’ comments, the authors said many problems emanated from systemic pressures.

There is also some emerging anecdotal evidence that the additional strain on schools caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which happened after the research was completed, may have worsened the extent to which colleagues feel unable to accommodate disabled teachers’ needs.

“These colleagues are typically well-meaning people who, outside school, would make every effort to accommodate a disabled person,” Prof Singal said.

“Part of the problem is that in school their only option is to get on with the job.”

The participating teachers had their details anonymised for the study, which is published in the journal Disability and Society.