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23 March 2023, Science and Industry Museum, Manchester A report by NW BT Unions H&S Co-ord members Derek Maylor and Brian Coupland Antony Ruck from Aventido opened taking about Assistive Technology and the Equality Act. It works and is good business sense to use such technology and a company as big as Tesco had a website that was not full accessible, so they created a second on, this became so successful and not just for those needing the assistance that they dropped the original site. Over 90% of disabilities are not visible and 21% of the workforce has at least one disability, some with more than one and some severe. The Purple Pound is where a household has someone in it who has a disability, it is worth £274bn to the economy, and the grey pound is more widely thought of but combined that is a huge market which companies are failing when there is assistive technology there to help their workers, help the company and help society.
David Mitchell from Posturite and has served on many industry forums for equality and diversity. There are increasing technology advancements in the free tools on the web but although useful they are limited and not a tailored solution to help workers. It is better to triage an individual, a diagnostic assessment and screening to see what his/her workplace needs and then enable them to reach their potential. It is also important to train the team around them. Liam Pettit from MindView talked about the benefits of Mind Mapping to visualise ideas and communicate them. It will make workers unleash their creativity more than just writing a shopping list and ticking items off as they go. Mind mapping software has been optimised for neurodiverse workers and users with disabilities, but its ease of use makes it popular across the workplaces where it has been rolled out, a useful educational tool was created by Mary Colley. Chris Hamlyn is from CareScribe and he discussed support for those with hearing loss, much of which would be useful for Branch officers in their role, at meetings, out with members or managers etc. Excellent for reviewing, taking notes quickly turning them into reports or presentations saving a lot of time and effort producing professional results. Outside that the technology levels the playing field for workers who need support. Mitchel Feldman introduced brand-new (July last year) smart glasses XRAI Glass which turn speech into subtitles using augmented reality software, in real time. It enables everyone can understand and “hear” what is being said by using subtitles projected onto glasses that look like sunglasses. It is a combination of AI and as creative as ChatGPT, using the technology of virtual reality. There are numerous tweaks that can be done by the user to get a personal solution to personal needs. Information is stored on a mobile (currently) and not on a cloud so there is no spying or big brother knowing what you are conversing (Web3 principle). The final speaker was Jamie Graham from JISC, Jamie is Autistic with ADHD and Dyslexia and told his story of a supportive GP giving him help, a very late diagnosis which took him from leaving school and his teacher telling how useless he was, that he would end up in jail to going back to school, then university for a degree and a Masters. He now a leading figure in Scotland for supporting employers and working with organisations to making changes to policy, recruitment and removing barriers to reach potential. Every worker with the right adjustments can focus on their strengths at work. You can download the full report in PDF format by clicking on the image above right.
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