The 70 companies that have successfully qualified for entry to this year's O2 Ability Awards will face the scheme's acid test over the next few weeks.

Ten pairs of auditors have just taken to the road to begin a central part of the competition's judging process.

Over coming weeks, they will visit and assess each workplace on its preparedness for disabled employees.

The awards are designed to recognise organisations that apply the best practice when it comes to employing disabled people.

The Aisling Foundation, a charity that champions disabled people as employees, and its partner, consultancy Access Ability, organise the awards.

The Irish Times is its media partner and other backers for the project include FÁS, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and Newstalk 106FM.

It is estimated that more than 360,000 people in this State live with some form of disability. But a high proportion of them still have difficulty finding work, despite new legislation designed to protect their rights and other moves to ease their passage into the workplace.

The Ability Awards are focused on promoting the idea that individuals with disabilities should be judged not on their disability but on their ability to do individual jobs.

But Ms Terry Fahy of Access Ability points out that employers have to eliminate potential barriers in their own workplaces in order to facilitate this.

Ms Fahy is in charge of running the assessment process.

She says that the approach is both unique and, from an employer's point of view, very searching.

"It's unique in that we developed it ourselves in accordance with Irish legislation and international best practice in this area," she says.

The awards scheme has six categories: leadership, recruitment and selection, career development, training and retention, customer service and environmental accessibility.

However, Ms Fahy says that entries are not judged under all headings, but a selection of categories, depending on those for which they have entered.

"For example, under leadership we are looking at how the chief executive or the company has looked after diversity in the workplace," she says.

"We look at how disability is incorporated into every facet of the workplace.

"Under recruitment and selection, we look at their policies and procedures.

"What we look for is that those policies and procedures do not exclude people with disabilities, and that they are recruited for their ability to do the job."

The auditors will also look at how workplaces are adapted to suit those with disabilities, Ms Fahy says.

For example, they will look at wheelchair accessibility or whether there is office equipment available that can be used by the visually impaired.

Under the customer service heading, the assessors will gauge how companies deal with and facilitate customers with a disability.

She points out that there are 360,000 disabled people in the Republic, so it's not a small market by Irish standards.

Ms Fahy argues that there is a strong business case for employing people with disabilities.

"What employers need to do is to focus on people's ability to do the job, not on their disability," she says.