London-based charity Changing Faces is launching a guide to challenge recruiters’ perceptions of candidates with disfigurements .

Changing Faces believes a deeper knowledge of disfigurement will improve selection and interview skills and procedures and demonstrate a true commitment to equality and diversity. Its new campaign will feature a press advertising campaign, flyers and a guide to ensure recruiters and employers are aware of their duties after the launch of the second phase of the Disability Discrimination Act in October this year.

Cathy Wheatley, an equal opportunities adviser at Changing Faces, who herself has a disfigurement, said: “Many employers just do not know how to react to someone with a disfigurement and this can lead to discrimination. Not only can they lose out by not employing the best person for a job but in customer service the implications can be serious.”