Disability inclusion basics training

Disability inclusion basics is a 90-minute training session. It gives attendees an overview to better understand:

• disability and what this means
• the language around disability
• how to remove access barriers at work or in daily life

This session can be modified to be 60 minutes depending on your needs.

Training outline

Introduction

This introduces the trainer, and session outcomes and outline.

Disability: what do you know? (polling)

This segment has 6 polling questions on disability statistics. This includes the disabled population, spending power, and how many people feel excluded.

Introduction to the social model of disability

Through a personal story, I explain the social model of disability. I share my experience with disability to help show the importance of the model and removing barriers.

This leads into a breakdown of what the social model is and how it works. I explain the medical model to compare, and then explain the differences.

Social model language and language activity

I talk about how to start using social model language and the difference with medical model language. This leads into an activity on what words are inclusive and which words are better to avoid.

Online: I ask participants to use the reaction buttons to tell me if they think we should use or avoid those words under the social model.

In person: I will split everyone into groups to sort flash cards into words to use and avoid under the social model. We then go through the answers together.

Examples of physical, attitudinal, and online barriers

In this section, I highlight some of the barriers disabled people experience. I give examples and include personal experiences from myself and other disabled people.

Some of the barriers highlighted are:

• Avoiding talking to or engaging with disabled people (attitudes)
• Banter and casual comments (attitudes)
• Doing something for a disabled person (attitudes)
• Poor colour contrast (digital)
• Inaccessible documents (digital)
• Poor image alt text (digital)
• Voice announcements not in written form (physical)
• Loud and bright environments (physical)
• Lack of accessible toilets (physical)

What’s included in this section will depend on whether the focus is on workplace or customer inclusion.

Discussion

After going over the barriers, we split into groups for a discussion on the different barriers. Groups are encouraged to take what they’ve learned and think about their workplace and own ways of working. What barriers can they highlight?

A brief overview of disability discrimination and the law

The final segment gives a brief overview of the Equality Act 2010 and the legal responsibilities everyone has. I share 3 examples of what discrimination might look like.

I can also cover examples of reasonable adjustments here if needed.

Capacity and format

This session uses a mix of interaction and presenting. It can be in-person or online. I would usually cap attendance between 40 to 60 people to manage the interactive elements.

If you would like to reach a wider audience, I can adjust the training to follow more of a presentation format that can have up to 300 people. This would reduce the session to an hour.

I offer a 30-minute follow up call for any attendees with questions on the training content. These are for clarification or accessibility, they’re not additional training time or consultation.

I use PowerPoint to present slides. All information on a slide is read out or described, except for decorative items.

Accessibility

I can send out the PowerPoint presentation slides 3 days before the session with a couple of the activity answer slides missing. I share the slides with full speaker notes to everyone following the training.

I always aim to make sure the training is inclusive and accessible as default. If someone has specific access needs, let me know what these are and I can tailor it for that individual.

Cost

£1,000 (prep and delivery)

Prep covers document creation, any small changes to the session, or adding references to your organisation or industry. It also includes admin time such as scheduling, emails and invoicing.

Bespoke training: I can tailor the session to your organisation, this can include things like examples, stories, policies or specific topics. I will send over a quote cost after talking to you about the topics or changes you would like to include.

I can offer discounts for charities, concessions, and repeat clients. You can ask about these when you contact me.