{"id":108,"date":"2016-08-22T17:03:08","date_gmt":"2016-08-22T16:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/peopletalk\/?p=108"},"modified":"2016-08-22T17:05:09","modified_gmt":"2016-08-22T16:05:09","slug":"thinking-outside-the-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/peopletalk\/thinking-outside-the-box\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking outside the box."},"content":{"rendered":"

In September I will be contributing to the Vice Chancellor\u2019s think tank on equality and diversity and in particular, offering my views on what it is like to work here with a disability. I have ten minutes to make my case on a topic which I can chunter on about for hours. So I wonder what I should focus on? <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I think there are two key points that the University needs to consider:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. We have to stop thinking about disability as binary, i.e. being disabled or not disabled. Isn\u2019t it the case that many of us are somewh\"Chalkere along a very long spectrum? A dodgy back, a grumbly knee, poor co-ordination, and so on. In our attempts to demonstrate compliance with the law, we in HR are guilty of labelling people as \u2018disabled\u2019 but I\u2019m really not sure it is that helpful a box to put people in.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Nor is the degree of disability \u2013 our position on that spectrum \u2013 a constant. It varies massively depending sometimes on our impairment (many conditions fluctuate or are progressive in nature) and, more often, on our environment (where we are working, what equipment we have, how aware our colleagues are and so on). For me, all of these factors are at play and affect how \u2018disabling\u2019 my sight loss is. <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"traffic-lights-99907_1920\"On a good day I am barely aware of having a disability \u2013 I have the right assistive technology to do my job, my colleagues remember to let me have those notes in advance so I can contribute effectively at our meeting, the bus driver is well trained in helping me get home, the pedestrian crossing works (find out about\u00a0the secret button at pedestrian crossings<\/a>)\u00a0\u00a0and I go to bed feeling accomplished, having contributed fully and not walked into any blunt objects. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    In contrast, a bad day is always around the corner and it\u2019s not normally because my sight is any worse \u2013 more likely it\u2019s an encounter with someone who simply doesn\u2019t think or has not been trained, or when my computer decides to stop talking to me, or when a website is poorly designed, or a document I need isn\u2019t available in a format I can use. Many of these disabling factors can be reduced or eliminated by our collective efforts as managers and colleagues. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n

    Oh dear, I\u2019m probably already running over my ten minute allocation. To cut to the chase then. What I hope we can do as a responsible employer is to look at disability as a fluid, movable state that we can influence in the way we treat people. Perhaps we can set ourselves the challenge of creating an environment that keeps people as close to the \u2018not disabled\u2019 end of the scale as we possibly can.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    Guidance is available on <\/span><\/span>\u2018Enable\u2019<\/span><\/u><\/span><\/a> the University support for disabled staff web pages.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    Richard Boggie, Acting Assistant\u00a0Director (HR Strategy)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In September I will be contributing to the Vice Chancellor\u2019s think tank on equality and diversity and in particular, offering my views on what it is like to work here with a disability. I have ten minutes to make my … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6288,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,27],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-equality","category-hr","tag-enable-disability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/peopletalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/peopletalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/peopletalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/peopletalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6288"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/peopletalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/peopletalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/peopletalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions\/111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/peopletalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/peopletalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/peopletalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}