Access for disabled people high on agenda
5 Oct 06
The Society has held a workshop with disabled people to discuss ways of making its services more acessible
An important initiative by the Society last month saw directors and staff from different departments engage with members of the public with a range of disabilities, in order to assess how the Society can better meet their needs.
From December, public service bodies such as the Society come under a statutory duty to consider proactively how to maximise opportunities for disabled people to engage with the Society and its services. The workshop, organised by the Society’s Head of Diversity Neil Stevenson and facilitated by the Inclusion Development Partnership, set out to identify priorities for action.
The key areas forming the focus of the day were client relations, education and training, communication (both public-facing staff such as reception, and the Society’s media work), and promoting good practice by high street solicitors. For most of the all-day event, workshops each focusing on one of these areas allowed the disabled representatives to describe the difficulties they face in accessing everyday services, and the means by which the Society might be able to remove these barriers.
Members of the public with a range of impairments (including hearing, visual, speech and mobility impairments as well as those who have faced mental health issues and learning disabilities) were all represented and came up with an extensive range of comments and suggestions. One early result may be a visit by some of those present to the Society’s offices to offer suggestions as to what can be done to make them more accessible.
Summing up at the end of the event, Neil Stevenson said he was delighted with the day’s proceedings. “The Society has a commitment to try and change”, he assured those present. “We can’t promise action on all fronts but we will look very carefully at all the comments in order to come up with our programme for change.”
Sally Mackintosh, of Inclusion Development Partnership, can be contacted on 01592 202244. The project has been sponsored by Hudson Legal: recruitment and development for the profession (www.uk.hudson.com/legal).)