a) Understanding and engaging with Legislation policies and standards
The disability field is covered by many areas of legislation.
- The Equality Act 2010 – previously Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)
- EU Web Accessibility 2018
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.
I have championed this at my previous University and at the present one. I campaign for better environment and experiences for our staff, students and visitors. I’m on many committees and carry out voluntary work for both the University and outside charities. Recently I produced some useful short guides for Deaf Unity. (Advice on working with a support worker)
Recently I became one of the acting Co-Chairs of the Enable Group at UCL which is a support group for disabled staff. We provide support, advice and training.
‘Dear Enable members,
I will send around the minutes from our first exec meeting later this week. However, in the interim I wanted to let you that Dr. Sarabajaya Kumar and Ms. Michele Farmer have both agreed to be acting co-chairs of Enable with me.
Most of the UCL diversity groups have two co-leaders, but because of our various disabilities and the extensive scope of the work to be done we decided this job was best shared between three people.
Sarabajaya is a Senior Teaching Fellow and MSc/MPA Elective Course Tutor at UCL, and has been here since 2010! She’s done a lot of disability advocacy.
Michele is the Disability IT Support Analyst, so I bet many of you already know her.
At some point next year someone from the diversity office will kick off the process for someone to represent disabled staff on the Provosts EDI council. I am having a discussion now with the administration if this needs to be the same people as the Enable co-chairs, or if there can be some differences and some overlap.
We will be in touch with a September meeting date in the next two weeks?we are going to skip August as so many people are on holiday.
In the interim feel free to keep discussing emergent issues here, and drop us a note if you have suggestions for things Enable should look into
Thank you,
Dr. Jennifer Rode
Associate Professor’
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. 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’m part of the University’s Digital Task and Finish Group who are spearheading the campaign to align the University with this new law.
I also deliver training on the law from showing people how to make their documents accessible, talks on the Directive itself, drop-in sessions, testing and recently an all ISD Staff talk using JAWS and Camtasia films to show issues with Moodle, and Turnitin. Moodle and JAWs film, Turnitin and JAWS film.
I was also invited recently to take part in a live streamed panel discussion on the new law by Tim Numann – Lecturer in Education and Technology and the Head of UCL IoE Learning Technologies Unit. at the Institute of Education.
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.
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.