Calvium became a Disability Confident employer a few months ago, so we are at the start of our journey with the scheme. As we go along, we plan to share our experience and insights in ways that we hope will inform other smaller businesses who might be interested in participating. As such, we hope to contribute to the wider conversation and gain valuable insights from our industry peers.

We first came across the UK government’s Disability Confident Scheme when creating our Social Value response to the All In arts access scheme tender. Having never heard of the scheme before, upon investigation it looked like the perfect framework to improve how we recruit, retain and develop disabled people.

As a company that embraces a high performance culture, we are on a mission to achieve levels 1 and 2 within two years and then apply for level 3 the next year. This is a significant goal and is not the expectation of the scheme. Indeed, it’s possible to progress at a slower pace, one that aligns with your organisation’s capabilities and capacity. Don’t let us put you off!

Disability Confident Networking

We have just joined the Disability Confident South West Network, set up by the University of Bath and Seetec. They run regular online meetups and we attended a great in-person event recently at The Guildhall in Bath. There may be a similar network in your region and if there is, join it. If there isn’t one, and you have the capacity and capability to start a regional network – go for it, or maybe point out the opportunity to local organisations who are accredited as Level 3 Leaders!

Incidentally, the LinkedIn Disability Confident page has 15k+ followers but is inactive at present. The Disability Confident Members Group on LinkedIn is private and unlisted; it has 937 members but, to date, hasn’t accepted our request to join. So, it’s been a lacklustre ‘official’ social networking experience for us. With no actual knowledge about the reasons for this situation, we imagine that the scheme started 10 years ago with a fulsome supporting infrastructure, but over time it has fallen off people’s radar and not been managed. If you know otherwise or if there are helpful Disability Confident networks out there, please let us know and we will share the information.

The event at The Guildhall brought many accessibility and inclusion experts into one space. There were insightful presentations from the Royal Institute of Blind People, Royal Association for Deaf People and the Department for Work and Pensions, as well as facilitated workshops discussing a range of themes, including inclusive recruitment. In sum, the event highlighted the wealth of challenges that are experienced daily by disabled people and that for each barrier there is more often than not a known solution – and some are very simple. There just needs to be the will for these solutions to be implemented. 

Making your online meetings accessible

As members of the scheme, Calvium has committed to providing a digital marketing job shadowing opportunity for D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people who are interested in finding out more about the profession. It will be provided online and we are currently exploring how we communicate the offer and how we deliver a valuable accessible experience. Our goal is to pursue best practice and ensure that we are as inclusive and accessible as possible. 

There are a wide variety of ways to make the job shadowing experience better for the participant. You may already have thought about some of these simple tips, but maybe not all:

Tip 1 – Pre-introductions

Before an online activity with a participant or interviewee who hasn’t met you before, provide the individual with photos of the staff who will be in the meeting, in order to settle any nerves.

Tip 2 – Built-in accessibility features

Familiarise yourself with the standard accessibility tools that are available within your chosen video conferencing software, and do so regularly as features change all the time. For instance, we use Google Meet which supports live captions. That said, knowing there is live captioning isn’t enough. We recommend testing the feature yourself in order to understand what the experience is like for someone who relies on it. Below is a snippet from BBC Radio 6 News.

Take a look at the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) site: Tips for using accessibility features on video conferencing software. 

Tip 3 – 5 minute accessibility snacking

If you have a general lack of exposure to accessibility tools or inclusive practices, then give yourself permission to make ‘accessibility snacking’ a habit. Making it a social activity, where you and a colleague explore a single technology or practice regularly, will improve your knowledge, your provision and, in turn, the experience of people who have a disability or health condition.

For instance, to get you started, here is a helpful article from the RNID about communicating with staff and customers who are deaf or have hearing loss. 

By engaging with and learning from others, we aim to foster an open dialogue on best practices and collaborative approaches for increasing accessibility. We look forward to contributing to the wider conversation and gaining valuable insights from our peers.

If you found this article useful, please let us know. If you have tried the tips, how did you get on? Equally, if we could do something better, please get in touch.