This week, in case you haven't noticed, is National Inclusion Week, an opportunity for everyone in the UK to raise awareness of inclusion in the workplace.
Under this year’s theme of ‘Every Day Inclusion - Celebrate and Inspire’ we want to help everyone working in the Civil Service, whatever grade, job or location, feel included, every day.
We want to make the Civil Service a great place to work. A place where there are no barriers to joining in or progressing your career, in an environment where you can bring the best of yourself to work and have a sense of belonging.
Valuing diversity and inclusion is important, and affects us all. It shouldn’t just be women who care about gender equality, or ethnic minorities and disabled people who care about inequality, or people from working class backgrounds, who care about social mobility. Building an inclusive culture is about everyone, and we all have a part to play.
This week there are lots of activities going on across departments, so look out for them, join in where you can and support those who are running them, and remember, inclusion is an everyday culture, so let's all work to keep building inclusion and make the Civil Service the most inclusive employer by 2020.
6 comments
Comment by Shane posted on
Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone did feel included 🙂
Comment by Adrian posted on
As a person with disabilities the biggest issue to inclusion is IT. Technology colleagues don't like exceptions. Might I suggest that those who feel the need have an IT buddy in the technology area who can help them progress issues.
Comment by Andrea Maynard posted on
Hi Adrian, I am so sorry that you have experienced issues with Technology. As a rule IT departments try to maintain costs at an affordable level but if additional equipment is required to meet the needs of an individual with any form of disability they do try to accoumodate this.
I do understand that not all IT departments are the same and smaller departments may have a limited budget, this however should not mean that you're specific needs are not addressed.
I work in IT at the UKHO and understand some of the issues that are faced by our end users and we also have a small team who work on ocupational health and if the IT budget cannot provide a specific item the OH team will do there best to provide the best possible solution.
Being a parially sighted person I understand the challenges of being physically challenged but also understand that sometimes budget constraints can limit a departments ability to make the best choice for the user.
Comment by Adrian posted on
Andrea Thanks very much for coming back to me. It isn't the cost of equipment as my only adjustments are the screen settings and having a monitor arm to bring the screen up close. The problem is that I use specialist design software unconnected with my disability and when it goes wrong it can take days to fix and I find it very hard to use other colleagues' computers due to my visual impairment. My wife works for another large government department, uses Zoomtext and has continuing problems in getting her work done and things fixed due to incompatibility issues when system updates take place. That's why I'm making the suggestion of an IT Buddy who can cut through some of the red tape involved in escalating an issue to get it resolved. It's really more of an administrative issue rather than cost.
Comment by Andrea Maynard posted on
Hi Adrian, being of the visually challenged myself I can feel your frustration. Again though I do beleive that budgetary constraints do play a part as well as security. Though there is an abundance of software that would meet your needs this usually varies in cost from 10's of £'s to thousands and not all software is designed around the standard Business Microsoft Model which means when Microsoft make a change it impacts on the software you use. Unfortunately IT departments are at the hands of these updates and finding a fix can be time consuming.
The most supported software that is considered by Microsoft when they make these changes usually come in at the high price ticket which can cause the IT department to look for a cheaper alternative which is not always cost effective. As Simon has suggested if you are not already a member it is worth considering joining the Civil Service Visual Network.
I wish you well.
Comment by Tracey Middlemiss posted on
I use voice-activated software and unfortunately we have a lot of problems also.
I mentioned in a meeting over three years ago that this was going to happen with regards to surface pro etc of course nothing was done!