Staffers' Guide to Accessibility for Disabled Constituents

Audience: Parliamentary staffers

Are you a parliamentary staffer? Do you want to help your MP make their communications and events as inclusive as possible for their disabled constituents? Our extensive Guide to Accessibility will help you to understand how best to engage with disabled people; how to achieve full accessibility in all their output, and will give you the space to plan and experiment with the necessary measures such as technology. The session will run across the mornings of 14 June and 18 June and cover:

• Common barriers disabled people face
• The significance of the Disability Rights Movement and the importance of creating inclusive spaces for disabled people
• How MPs can ensure basic accessibility features across all their communications (i.e. website, social media, documents, email, surgeries)
• How to make events, whether in-person or virtually more accessible. We will provide an accessibility checklist
• How to implement accessibility features which are more time-consuming to implement and more expensive (but equally important), such as textphone, telephone, Makaton, and braille
• How to work with external organisations to implement the most sophisticated accessibility features
• Which channels might be best to reach disabled constituents and target audiences within this demographic (i.e. younger deaf people may respond better to an SMS message than a sub-titled advert)
• How to reach disabled non-internet users

Helping Westminster Skills Centre with the delivery of the session will be Disability Rights UK and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB):

Kamran Mallick, Disability Rights UK

Kamran Mallick is the Chief Executive at Disability Rights UK. Formerly, he was the Chief Executive at Action on Disability, the Hammersmith-based disability organisation, where he worked for 13 years. Kamran serves on the boards of Lyric Hammersmith, Wheels for Welling, and Lloyds Bank Foundation. Kamran was included in the top 10 of the Shaw Trusts Powerlist 100 - Most influential disabled people.

Robin Spinks, RNIB

Robin is the Senior Innovation and Technology Relationships Manager at RNIB where he leads on the development of innovative strategic partnerships with the technology sector globally. He has worked in the disability space for twenty years including working with NGOs, the private sector, and governments in Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean. Robin is active on various innovation strategy boards where he provides expertise and a deep community understanding of the needs of disabled people. Robin is also currently Vice-Chair of the World Blind Union (WBU) Technology Committee.

Who this course is for:

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This course is open to parliamentary staffers from any political party. This course is intended as a more in-depth follow-up to the introductory MPs' Guide to Accessibility for Disabled Constituents.

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The Scheme of MPs' Business Costs and Expenses recognises courses for parliamentary staff that concentrate on parliamentary work as a 'claimable cost' which can be reclaimed from the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA).