Welcome to our monthly disability news update……remember to keep coming back each month for a regular review of all things Inclusion, OT, DDA and disability related!!

Better access to childcare for parents of disabled children

The Department for Children, Schools and Families has announced that parents of disabled children will soon get better access to childcare. The Government is injecting £35 million into Disabled Children’s Access to Childcare pilot projects, which will be tested in ten local areas. If these are successful, they will be rolled out nationally.

The projects include:

• new centres of excellence for disabled children in children’s centres that are next to special schools
• specialist training for childminders and nursery workers on how to care for and educate disabled children
• development of a network of specialist childminders to help parents find flexible childcare
• recruitment of parent champions to explain and promote the needs of BME disabled children
• encouragement of university and gap year students to take on caring roles
• peer-to-peer support for parents, sharing information on what is available and what actually works

Further information is available on the News Distribution Service website

Inclusive Design Toolkit

The Inclusive Design Toolkit – which consists of a book and an online guide – aims to demonstrate to companies how their products could be improved so that they appeal to as wide a range of people as possible. It was launched in July 2007 after being commissioned by BT and developed by the University of Cambridge’s Engineering Design Centre, Sagentia and the Helen Hamlyn Centre.

The guidance takes users on a step-by-step journey through the design process, highlighting the elements they need to consider to create an inclusive product. It also contains practical case studies that show how badly designed products may be difficult for certain people to use. These are separated into seven different areas: vision, hearing, thinking, reach and stretch, communication, locomotion and
dexterity. It also uses population statistics to demonstrate what percentage of the population might be affected by poorly designed products.
The online resource also offers an interactive impairment simulator, which allows the user to simulate what something might sound or look like to someone with a hearing or visual impairment. This function has recently been extended to allow users to upload and test their own images.

Read more about the information and resources available by visiting the Inclusive Design Toolkit website

Single Equalities Bill expected in late 2008

The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has confirmed that the Government is still planning to introduce the Single Equalities Bill in November 2008. This is in spite of the fact that there has been a delay in publishing draft clauses of the Bill, which is apparently due to ‘the many hundreds of replies’ to the consultation that have been received, according to Barbara Follett, Minister for Equality.

Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: ‘We welcome the Government’s commitment to moving the vital debate on equality and fair treatment into the 21st century … The current legislation, built up in a piecemeal fashion over 40 years, is now frankly unworkable and should be quietly laid to rest – a solution for a different era. We need simpler legislation that
guarantees everyone’s right to achieve their potential and helps good employers recruit and get the best from the widest pool of talent.’

Read more about this on Workplace Law Network’s website

Deaf candidate rejected for job interview

A deaf woman has won a case against a potential employer after complaining that she was discriminated against prior to the interview stage. Pauline Alexander applied for temping work within Sales Link Services, a recruitment agency in London. She had formerly been the director of a property company, and was well qualified for the role for which she was applying.

When she contacted Sales Link Services about the position, she was told that her hearing impairment would be a barrier to doing the job. Although she was asked to send in a CV, the company contacted her shortly afterwards to tell her that she would not be invited to interview because of her hearing loss. It was only when Ms Alexander pointed out that this was discriminatory that the company backed down
and offered her an interview.

When Ms Alexander took the case to an employment tribunal, it ruled that she had been unfairly discriminated against under the Disability Discrimination Act. Sales Link Services was ordered to pay £5,000 in compensation, as well as legal fees. However, she found that this part of the process was not free from obstacles, as she explained: ‘I’d also like to see an overhaul of the tribunal system to make it more “disability friendly”, including deaf and disability awareness training for all tribunal staff, especially those on tribunal panels.’

The Guardian website examines this case in more detail

Draft of updated BS 8300 released

A draft of the updated BS 8300 Design of buildings and their approaches to meet the needs of disabled people – Code of practice has been released for consultation. The consultation is open for comment until 31 July 2008.

The updated draft guidance, and information about how to comment, is available
on the British Standards Institution’s website

Improving local neighbourhoods for older people

Help the Aged has highlighted that older people are increasingly facing difficulties accessing services within their local neighbourhood. In response to this, the charity has identified ten aspects of local life that need to be examined to help tackle this social exclusion. These categories form the backbone of the Common Ground Agenda:
• Lifetime Homes
• transport for all
• state of pavements
• public toilets
• public seating
• safety, security and cleanliness of streets
• basic amenities within reasonable reach
• places to meet and spend time
• information and advice
• older people’s voices heard

The Towards Common Ground report expands on each of these aspects, investigating the ways in which they have an impact on older people’s lives. Within each topic, the report calls on specific public, private and voluntary organisations to help instigate change and reduce exclusion. Help the Aged will campaign for each of these points over the coming months. Download the report from Help the Aged’s website

Inclusion are based around London, Kent, Surrey, Sussex and cover the whole of the south of the UK. We also cover up to the midlands and over towards the south west of the country – please contact us for further details or for free support and advice around any DDA or Occupational Therapy issues.