The move to recruiting employees using online application forms, tests and interviews is discriminating against disabled people, says Susan Scott-Parker, director general of the Employers' Forum on Disability (EFD).
Many of the services run by recruitment agencies and HR departments are inaccessible, she told a workshop on poverty and unemployment at the e-Inclusive Ministerial Conference.
"Technology that should help people into work is getting in the way," she said. "Thousands and thousands of jobs are being advertised on websites that disabled people can't get through to at all."
The EFD has developed a guide consisting of 12 questions that employers should ask their recruitment agencies to ensure the firms are not "inadvertently preventing good people from coming to them".
Where companies insist that applicants come online to apply for jobs, she observed, there should be a highly regarded alternative route that reassures disabled people they will not lose out if they can't use web tools.
Scott-Parker acknowledges that recruitment companies argue that they aren't paid enough to allow them to invest in accessible sites.
The EFD has been campaigning for greater awareness of accessibility among I T professionals. A year ago the organisation set up a Business Accessibility Taskforce which has around 30 members including GlaxoSmithKline, Lloyds TSB and HM Revenue & Customs.
The Taskforce is working on improved training for I T professionals, developing a business case for accessible I T and lobbying high technology firms to make their products and services more accessible.
"Our intention is to set the standard for employers to access so that they can make I T accessible to everyone," commented Scott-Parker. "I see it as a case of universal design."