The Thought Leadership series provides a platform to a range of experts and leading voices working in disability and accessibility. The articles offer contributors an opportunity to set an agenda for change, challenge the status quo and drive the vital conversations that surround the hard work being done by many people to improve the lives of disabled people.
Imagine walking into a classroom where you feel invisible—your needs ignored, and the support you require just out of reach. You’re given a book, just like everyone else, but you can’t read it. Not because you lack the ability, but because your teacher doesn’t know how to help you access the text. They only know that everyone gets a book, and that’s equality. Read the full article
We look around the education landscape with sadness and concern as the word” inclusion” has been diluted, misappropriated, and sometimes airbrushed out of everyday professional parlance.
The undeniable truth is that the word “inclusion” means different things to different people. Read the full article
To celebrate the conclusion of cerebral palsy awareness month here at Microlink, I want to tell you, my story.
My name is Luke Nadin I am a wheelchair user and have had cerebral palsy all my life. However, this does not define me.
I started my educational journey at Victoria education centre in Bournemouth, where I achieved GCSE A to C, and then I decided to move on to study ICT at Bournemouth and Poole college. It was here where my appreciation for my disability truly started.I began looking at my disability differently and realising that although I was in a chair, most of the day I could look at the world differently and use my ability to overcome barriers both physically and educationally using a mixture of technology and physical accessories to help me daily. Read the full article
Harry Georgiou is the Youth Advisory and Co-Production Assistant at DFN Project SEARCH. Harry is on a crusade to create a future in which individuals with disabilities can succeed in employment based on their passions and abilities.
Harry has led several disability campaigns across the UK and will continue to work with businesses across the UK so they can become more inclusive and accessible. Read the full article
Almost three years ago Covid changed our lives forever. It continues to do so, and one perhaps surprising impact (at least initially) has been a growth of interest, understanding and appetite for disability inclusion. Businesses have realised that they can, and must, work differently and flexibly. There are other drivers of course: Brexit, and the loss of a migrant European workforce for one. Nonetheless, I feel there is a shifting narrative; one that is increasingly about talent – and that is great to see. Read the full article
Kevin Hewitson has over 40 years of experience in teaching and has held pastoral and subject lead roles as well as having been an assistant principal responsible for teaching and learning strategies. He now works independently as an educational consultant and keynote speaker, sharing his vision with educational organisations, schools and teachers. Read the full article
Chief Executive Officer of the DFN Foundation and DFN Project SEARCH, Claire Cookson is an experienced senior leader with an extensive background in education. She brings a strong understanding of collaborating with businesses, educators, and Local Authorities to develop employability outcomes for learners with special educational needs and disabilities. Read the full article
The context for this piece is that my colleagues and I at ASM have for the last decade been supporting neurodivergent people to find and retain employment. We currently work with around 150 individual clients, and are involved with 60-odd different companies and organisations across all sectors of the economy. Read the full article
After 24 years working in the global corporate world, I chose to jump ship. In the middle of a pandemic, I started a consultancy, practicing in an area most organisations don’t understand and therefore had few plans to invest in – disability inclusion and accessibility. Read the full article
In a world where technology has the opportunity to change the lives of people around the world, there are more than one billion people who are too often overlooked. For those who have decided to help change this, the journey from inaccessible to accessible is non-linear. The process from non-inclusive to inclusive is one that requires compassion and determination. One which needs curiosity, humility, intention, and commitment. Read the full article
When this incident happened, I had been a Guide Dog Mobility Instructor for 6 years. It made me realise that as much as I felt I was helping, I was inadvertently part of the problem. By standing at my client’s shoulder, I was encouraging this unprepared and unsure staff member to interact with me rather than my client. By returning eye contact, I provided them with an escape route which they immediately took. Read the full article
As a specialist in physical accessibility, there is one major issue which I encounter on a daily basis, which informs nearly all others: a lack of education. Through no real fault of their own, a lack of awareness among the large majority of people tend to underestimate the scope of what accessibility in physical spaces entails. Normally, it is only the most visible examples of accessibility solutions which enter public awareness. Read the full article
This paper has not been set to provide a great solution. Rather, it considers some ideas of how to rethink the ‘beautiful mess’ we continue to create: the morass of disconnected and siloed workplace health and wellbeing services which are failing to efficiently serve organisations and employees alike. Read the full article
Web accessibility can seem like a daunting task. With rapidly changing legislation always looming on the horizon it is something that many organisations need to tackle. For the uninitiated, looking at the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) (often pronounced as “Wuh-cag”) can leave even the sharpest minds feel like they are drowning in a sea of words. Read the full article
I have spent over twenty years working in and around Disability. While my eyesight may not have improved over those years, my ability to see through empty talk most certainly has. Unfortunately, intended or not, when it comes to recruiting disabled people and hiring diverse workforces, it is far too commonplace for people to say all the right things without following it up with action. Read the full article
The traditional model for understanding disability, referred to as the Medical Model of Disability, focusses upon the features or symptoms of a disabled person’s condition in order to define their disability. Of course, diagnostic medicine and treatment is enormously valuable; but it is not without its limitations. Read the full article
Over the past thirty years – the length of time since we founded Microlink in 1992 – there have been dramatic changes in how we understand and talk about disability and neurodiversity. However, despite efforts to eradicate stigma and improve support to disabled and neurodiverse individuals, there remains significant work to be done. Read the full article
