8 minute read
INDEPENDEMT LIVING
Lessons for teachers
AFREE school toolkit is available to help staff understand the needs of pupils with Ehlers-Danlos syndromes and joint hypermobility syndrome.
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Affected children may have poor attendance due to outpatient appointments or high symptom levels, while some families resort to home education.
Typical symptoms can include dislocations, sprains without a clear cause, pain, tiredness, clumsiness, dizziness and anxiety.
n EDAHelpline: 0800 907 8518 n Hypermobility Helpline: 03330 116 388 n Toolkit available at www.theschooltoolkit. org
LEFT: What it’s like to have diabetic retinopathy. RIGHT: How sight is affected by age-related macular degeneration
How the world looks to some people
FOR the first time, the rest of the world can see how life looks through the eyes of a blind or partially sighted person.
Anew video uses augmented reality to simulate the six most common sight conditions in the UK today: cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, retinitis pigmentosa, hemianopia, age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma.
The video shows each condition, with increasing severity, overlaid with a simulation onto moving footage of everyday activity. Each simulation has a narration describing the condition in terms of cause, demographics, impact and any available treatment.
Charles Colquhoun, head of the Thomas Pocklington Trust, which produced the video, said: “Visual impairment varies greatly from person to person and it is sometimes difficult to demonstrate what people with the various conditions experience – until now.
“We hope this video will help other businesses and sight loss organisations in their work –whether for staff and volunteer VI awareness training, to educate architects and town planners or engage corporates in campaigns. We are very proud to be leading on this work” .
It is available to watch as one continuous video or by selecting a condition or conditions.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxqXEt5tuQs
n Find out more about the six common eye
conditions on the TPT website: www.pocklington-trust.org.uk
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State of art loos at major rail hub
AFULLY accessible Changing Places toilet facility is now available for passengers at London’s Euston rail station.
Unlike the standard “disabled” toilets, Changing Places loos provide additional aids such as: n Height-adjustable adultsized changing bench. n Ceiling mounted hoist. n Centrally placed toilet with space either side. n Non-slip floor. n Height-adjustable washbasin. n Emergency alarm.
It is hoped the new loos will give those with profound and multiple disabilities, their carers, assistants and families the confidence to travel through the station.
Karen Hoe, Changing Places manager for Muscular Dystrophy UK, which cochairs the Changing Places Consortium, said: “Changing Places toilets are a lifeline for the 250,000 people across the UK who rely on them. ” n The Changing Places toilet is opposite the existing loos on the eastern side of the station.
Bosses fail disabled workers
ALMOST one in three disabled workers say that they’ve been treated unfairly at work during the pandemic, a new survey has found.
Coronavirus risks undoing recent improvements in getting disabled people into work, and pushing disabled people back out of the labour market, warns the TUC, who commissioned the poll.
Before Covid, disabled workers were hugely underrepresented and underpaid in the labour market, while recent government figures show redundancy rates are now 62% higher for disabled workers.
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Before the pandemic, disabled workers were already up against huge barriers getting into and staying in work. Covid-19 has made it even worse.
“Employers are failing disabled workers. Many disabled and shielding workers felt unsafe at work.And too many disabled workers told us their boss is breaking the law by not giving them the adjustments they need. ”
Disabled workers told the TUC that their disability or shielding status meant they were treated unfairly, and worse than other colleagues during the pandemic.
Ms O’Grady added: “Ministers must act. We need proper enforcement of disabled workers’ rights to reasonable adjustments and safety at work, and a duty on employers to report and close the pay gap between disabled and nondisabled workers. ”
The YouGov poll also uncovered: Shielding workers put at risk: More than one in five (21%) shielding workers worked outside of their home most of the time – even though employers could use furlough to protect shielding workers who could not do their jobs from home. Hostile workplaces: One in eight (12%) disabled workers have not told their employer about their disability or health condition, with many of them fearing being treated unfairly (24%) or losing their job (21%) if they were open about it. Meanwhile, 8% said they were subjected to bullying and/or harassment, were being ignored or excluded, singled out for criticism or monitored excessively at work. Employers failing disabled workers: Only just over half (55%) of those who asked their employers for reasonable adjustments during the pandemic said they had been made in full. Almost a third (30%) said they didn’t get all their reasonable adjustments, and one in six (16%) said they had none implemented. Unsafe workplaces: Aquarter of disabled workers said they felt unsafe at work during the pandemic due to the risk of catching/spreading the virus – and this rose to nearly one in three (30%) among those who worked outside their homes throughout.
GIVEGIVE USUS A A CHANCECHANCE
Students need more support
ATHIRD of young people with visual impairments are struggling to gain quality education and employment because they don’t get proper support.
And once they find themselves without work or a place in education or training, some young people find themselves actively discouraged by JobCentre Plus staff from seeking employment, in favour of long-term benefits.
The results of an 11-year-study following the lives of 82 young people from the age of 14, showed that while many did well at school, things went awry once they turned 16.
Rachel Hewett, from the University of Birmingham’s Vision Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research, said: “The research identified key challenges once the young people transitioned into further education. Many found adjustments were not put in place in time and they had a lack of access to specialist support.
“Careers guidance often focused on keeping the young person in education, with limited support for transitioning into employment. ”
Reasonable adjustments
Many barriers were observed once they moved into higher education, such as an inaccessible application process for UCAS and Disabled Students’Allowance, inaccessible virtual learning environments and a failure from institutions to make reasonable adjustments.
This led to some withdrawing from courses, repeating modules or entire academic years, or leaving with a degree classification which they feel did not reflect their ability.
Tara Chattaway, head of education at the Thomas Pocklington Trust charity said: “We are calling on Government to bridge this gap and ensure the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill, and their response to the impending SEND review, truly supports the aspirations and learning needs of vision impaired students. ”
At the end of the study 66% of the remaining participants were in some form of employment, while 17% were not in education, employment or training, including seven young people who by the age of 25 had never experienced employment.
DISABLED people are being shut out of the music industry largely because of the way employers view them.
That’s the conclusion of a disturbing survey that found four out of five deaf and disabled people working in music believe barriers related to their impairment had affected their career.
And among those looking for work in the business, more than half have withdrawn from a job application for access-related reasons, while two thirds admitted they either always or sometimes conceal impairments or health conditions.
One of those interviewed said: “I often find job offers are suddenly unavailable when I ask about access adjustments. ”
An overwhelming 93% of those questioned said the biggest barrier they faced in the music and live events industry was other people’s perceptions of their capabilities.
Attitude is Everything, which campaigns to
improve accessibility to live music, released the research as it published its
new, free Accessible Employment Guide.
Robin Millar, the disabled, award-winning record producer of albums such as Sade’s
Diamond Life, and chair of disability charity
Scope, said: “I’m here because, in 40 years in the music business in this country, I’ve never been offered a job. ”
He said that research had shown that more than half the population had admitted being awkward when talking to disabled people.
Millar added: “The big answer: Let’s get rid of special schools. Let’s make sure we end up in a country that has had a whole generation that by the time we all get to 18, our classmates have been every sort, type, gender, colour, race, creed, ability, disability, mental acuity, deafness, blindness, you name it.
“It will then never occur to any of them to start a business where they can’t embrace the most talented, interesting, fun, engaging of all their friends. I’m really saying that attitude is everything. ”
The guide has been endorsed by organisations including UK Music, the PRS Foundation and theAssociation of
Perceptions stop us from working
Independent Music.
Ben Price, from HarboursideArtist Management, said the guide was “a huge step forward in simplifying and demystifying some of the assumptions
employers sometimes make” . n Attitude is Everything: Tel. 020 7383 7979 n www.attitudeiseverything.org.uk
