Celebrating Purple Tuesday: SHL Continues to Advocate for Inclusion and Accessibility

What is Purple Tuesday?

Purple Tuesday is a worldwide event that celebrates the commitment of participating organizations to improve the global customer experience for people with disabilities and their families, one reachable, tangible step at a time. It’s sponsored by Purple: a company who engages with, educates, and supports thousands of disability-inclusive organizations across the globe as they work toward more accessible, inclusive futures.

SHL first partnered with Purple Tuesday several years ago as part of our ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. As an industry leader in selection assessment, HR solutions, and psychometric science, we are uniquely positioned to collect and evaluate extensive talent assessment data to inform best practices for the field. Since our first Purple Pledge, SHL has translated research to practice by implementing various updates designed to support diverse candidates, including self-select accommodations available throughout the assessment experience. Examples of these include color contrast options, screen-reader software compatibility, multi-device compatibility, and the ability to re-record interview responses, with more enhancements in progress. The goal of these research-based enhancements is to provide self-selected accommodations and reduce the burden of disclosure for candidates.

We have also built a library of freely available resources for neurodivergent candidates on our Neurodiversity Candidate Hub, such as a wide variety of practice tests, information to support the identification of helpful accommodations, frequently asked questions, and more.

A Year of Big Wins Through Powerful, Applied Research

We are honored to have become a thought leader among academics, industry professionals, and organizational leaders. In the last year, we have continued to progress our research agenda with some noteworthy recognition:

• Named a Neuro-Champion for the Celebrating Neurodiversity Awards – Innovation and Ideas category, sponsored by Genius Within
• Published our research “Cognitive ability: A promising option for assessing neurodiverse talent” in the peer-reviewed Consulting Psychology Journal
• Presented our research at the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology annual conference in the following sessions where we discussed evidence-based best practices with talent assessment industry leaders:

  • “Beyond the buzzwords: Neurodiversity inclusion and better work for all.”

  • “Diverse Minds, Inclusive Measures: Assessment Considerations for Neurodivergent Success”

  • “A Scientist-Practitioner Approach to Improving Experiences of Neurodiverse Candidates”

  • “Incorporating Inclusion in Research: Innovative Practices from the Field”

  • “Navigating Talent Trends: Insights from Industry Leaders”

Expanding Our Commitment: SHL’s Inclusive Assessment Research Program

Building on the success of our Neurodiversity Research Program, we have launched two new applied research initiatives under our broader Inclusive Assessment Research Program:

• Disability Research Program, which emphasizes the design of universally appropriate measures that take into account the experiences of individuals with disabilities. Our research in this space is currently focused on understanding how we improve the assessment experience for candidates from the deaf community.
• Black Heritage Research Program, which is dedicated to understanding and improving candidate experiences for candidates of Black Heritage. This research is gaining momentum as we are currently conducting interviews with research participants as part of our partnership with Black Young Professionals (BYP).

Full Steam Ahead: Upcoming Research

The Neurodiversity Research Program team continues to deliver on our commitment to inclusive assessment with an assortment of impactful projects under way. Meaningful findings from our current research address such widely varied topics as:

• How the language used in practice test instructions impact disclosure choices and score outcomes
• Whether demographic intersectionality holds influence over the disclosure of neurodiversity
• How disclosure is supported with inclusive language to expand our understanding of different neurotypes, disabilities, and the intersection among them
• How neuro-and demographically diverse candidates experience our assessment solutions
• How accessibility can be ensured in test design

If you are interested in getting involved, staying updated on our current activities and progress, please visit our website.

Happy Purple Tuesday! Let us celebrate the people and organizations around us driving positive change.