Peter,

Your staff are highly privileged to have a 3-day induction programme and
I find it difficult to believe that any Human Resources/Staff
Development group would consider omitting reference to disability. Just
quote the DDA to them.

But, to add greater weight:


> > a.  Reasons why disability should be included in staff induction
>
> It is easy to justify NOT including Equal Opps/Disability issues in staff
> induction providing you are certain that none of the staff have a disability or are likely to acquire one,
> that none of them are likely to come into contact with disabled colleagues, students or other clients,
> that none of them are likely to encounter any (potentially expensive) problems with current
> and upcoming Equality and Disability legislation, etc, etc.

Sorry, but to neglect Equal Opps in the current legislative climate
would be surprising indeed. Sell Disability as part of equal Opps and
valuing diversity. And quote figures: we will all either come into
contact with disabled people as students or colleagues or will, at
some time in our lives, have personal experience of
disability/impairment.

Note that information now will foster the development of inclusion.
And surely Worcester has an equal Opps policy and a Disability
Statement: new staff need to be aware of these policies.

Also Widening Participation: disabled people are under represented in
HE and FE so WP naturally includes disabled students.
>
> > b.  Content of a staff induction session.
>
> In my experience, staff inductions are like student inductions  -
> lengthy and somewhat tedious (especially after a couple of days).
> Staff tend to remember precious little of the detail so it makes
> sense to provide an overview of the service and references to
> further sources of info (especially people) - so that when the need
> arises, new staff will know which way to turn in the first instance.
>
Yes, plus Disability Equality Training: now for the sell Peter, as I
have an excellent Disability Equality Trainer in my staff who will
happily provide you with a short session of staff training!

Make a case for Disability equality Training (Introduction to) and
delivered by a disabled person. This will have impact on all staff and
they will remember it for future reference.


Good luck, and if I can be of any help give me a ring or E-mail me off
list.

ATB

Claire


----------------------
Claire Wickham
Director: Access Unit
Department of Disability Studies
University of Bristol
Union Building
Queen's Road
Clifton
Bristol BS8 1LN

Tel: 0117 954 5710
Textphone: 0117 954 5715
Fax: 0117 954 5714

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