17-May-19 | News

1-6 Digital Success in less than 3 minutes by Ross Hovey, Accessibility Manager for Lloyds Banking Group

“Digital Success in less than 3 minutes”

We celebrated Global Accessibility Awareness Day with the launch of 6 videos on accessibility in the workplace.

These videos feature how small changes can make a big difference.

Our vision is to have an inclusive society where disability and health conditions do not present a barrier in education or in the workplace through Assistive Technology, Ergonomics and creating an accessible environment.

Let’s hear from Ross Hovey, Accessibility Manager for Lloyds Banking Group. #DigitalSuccessin3mins

00:00
Digital Success in less than three minutes. My name is Ross Hovey and I am Accessibility Manager of Lloyds Banking Group. I have spinal muscular atrophy which confines me to an electric wheelchair. I don’t use any specialist software or specialist laptop or mice. On my laptop I tend to use the nipple rather than the mouse pad because I find it’s less sensitive to use but I guess the main piece of assistive technology I use my iPhone because it enables me to receive emails, view presentations, type emails, use WebEx is hold the camera so that people can see me and it allows me to be independent I don’t you know it’s always in my hand so I couldn’t you know pretty much do anything that I need to from there and it interchanges between my work life and my personal life. I use my mainstream iPhone differently. So it’s
 
01:01
got it it’s got a feature on it called assistive touch so I struggled to lock the screen and unlock the screen. I actually have got the iPhone X which unlocks off my face because I was getting more difficult typing in the numbers, so that enables to unlock it easily by using the assistive tech feature on there which allows me to lock it, turn the volume up and down take screenshots if I need to screenshot something and I also use the same features on my iPad. I guess my superpower is a combination of memory and navigation so being in a wheelchair, I have to learn routes to places, in fact even driving my car because I drive off of hand controls, bumps
 
01:50
or certain types of uneven roads are more difficult for me to drive on. So I photographically memorize routes between places. In the workplace one of the main difficulties for me is his manoeuvrability, so spaces between desks, doorways, getting in and out of lifts and even just being comfortable my desk, you know standard electric up and down desk wouldn’t actually suit me. I need something more bespoke. Something that would almost be custom-made and that kind of table doesn’t seem to exist. so manoeuvrability, accessing the
 
02:31
desk easily, I tend to compensate and do things like to sit on the corner of a desk because it allows me to be clear of the legs, but get close enough for my body to be able to rest my keyboard on the corner. I would say obviously to continue to employ all diverse people whether it’s disability or another element of diversity. We all got lots of different skills and attributes but I’d also take time to listen to those people, listen to their ideas, sometimes you don’t need experts to help solve the problem because the person with the disability or the difference knows what they need themselves to enable them to do the job and sometimes it’s still not expensive, it’s not that complicated, it’s often just a bit of common sense . This video was produced for Business Disability Forum in collaboration with BBC and Microlink. With thanks to: Anya Otto from Atos, Joanna Wootten, Age, Disability and Inclusion Expert, Nicola James from Lexxic, Paul Bepey from BBC, Paul Smyth from Barclays, Ross Hovey from Lloyds Banking Group..