Core Area 3 – The Wider Context

The disability field is covered by many areas of legislation.

The Equality Act of 2010 has nine protected characteristics:

  • Age
  • Disability
  • Gender reassignment
  • Marriage and civil partnership
  • Pregnancy and maternity
  • Race
  • Religion or belief
  • Sex
  • Sexual orientation

Though at first sight, the ‘Disability’ characteristic would be most people’s first thought of relevance, there is often an overlap between many of these characteristics, such as an autistic person going through the gender reassignment process, or a woman who is dyslexic.

The Equality Act replaced the earlier Disability Discrimination Act, with the idea being that it would merge with the other laws and thus simplify the legislation. Sadly, this really hasn’t been the case. It still relies on terms like ‘reasonable adjustments,’ which are so vague and open to interpretation. It has taken stronger lines with being preemptive and proactive, with regards to preparing for disabled users without having to be told someone is coming to the institution. It has also tightened up the laws with regards to court cases, where institutions have to now prove that they were not negligent, rather than the plaintiff having to prove that they were. But again, like the previous DDA, a lot of this will rely on test court cases to make the law clearer.

One of the hardest things in my job is trying to advise others about this law, and persuade them of the importance of accessibility and compliance. In my role, one of the most frustrating things is having no power to implement the changes, and having to keep spending a lot of time going to meetings, talking to people, and writing reports. Over the years, I have learned strategies for this, by asking senior people who I noticed were successful at getting changes made how they achieved this, as well as making connections and allies wherever possible. It is a difficult process when you are a person who likes to get things done quickly; patience is something I have had to learn. In 2018 I started on a ‘Women in Leadership’ course which has helped to develop networks and find more strategies with which to push these ideas forward.

I was asked in 2017 about web accessibility and how to go about checking for it and building it into design. At first I pointed people to various sites on the net, but the feedback was that its was all too complex and did I have anything in one place. So a colleague and I decided to try to gather as much information as possible, and try to simplify it, and put it into one document for people to work with. Web accessibility guide.

This guide is now being recirculated after some changes to help staff understand some of the modifications needed to comply with the 2018 EU Directive on Web Accessibility and has lead to some positive feedback on this guide .

b) Policy

As I have mentioned above, it is a hard task to persuade areas to take on board the importance of change with regards to the Equality Act, but increasingly groups both within and outside of my organisation, are asking for my input towards projects and documents they are working on.

In Sept 2018 I was invited by the All Party Political Group (APPG) on Assistive Technology to take part in a discussion about the new EU Web Accessibility  ‘The APPG works by holding events in Parliament, bringing experts and politicians together for roundtable discussions, symposia, and receptions; we use the findings from these policy’events to develop briefings, term papers and research reports, to inform and influenceParliament, Government and the sector.’ The findings of the APPG discussion group. For a list of contributors see page 45.

I am one of the Disability Champions who support the team in the Universities application for the Disability Standard. I liaise within my allocated department and help with guidance and documentation as well as website data. I serve on the Technology and Standardisation Group in the Digital Domain and was the chair for a short period of time. On top of this I am part of the main ‘Enable’ group whose role is to improve conditions for disabled staff and students across the University. We provide support, advice and training.

I have represented the University since July 2017 at the Autism Partnership Board with Camden Council. The purpose of this is to modify and develop new services to support autistic clients within the borough, from housing, through to education and employment. The following is the response I received to my agreeing to participate in the Autism Partnership Board.

‘I am delighted that you feel able to take this on full time.  I will notify Camden accordingly and thank you once again for undertaking the role.

Best wishes,

Mike Higgins’

I work now on both a local and national level to influence and develop policy for the sector as a whole, and I am being recognised for the knowledge, and experience in this field that I have gained over my long career in this area.