A Cumbrian charity have called for businesses to engage with disability awareness through their new training days.
Calvert Lakes, leaders in accessible outdoor adventure for all, have launched a series of new training days to encourage businesses of all sizes to actively engage with disability awareness in the workplace, for the benefit of both employees and customers.
For customer facing businesses, the Calvert Team want to help organisations ensure that staff are up to speed with welcoming and accommodating customers and guests with disabilities.
According to Scope UK, one in five working age adults identify as living with a disability in the UK. In a workplace of 50 people, around 10 colleagues could be facing additional challenges.
Centre Director, Sean Day commented: “We want to help forward-thinking, inclusive organisations, build on how they embrace and cater for a diverse workforce and customer bases. It is so important that no matter what the area of industry, we’re all doing our best to be as inclusive and accessible as possible.”
The Lake District Wildlife Park and business services provider David Allen were among the first to take on the new disability awareness training days.
Sheryl Dobson, David Allen’s Training and Development Manager said: “This has been a fantastic opportunity to be part of this new initiative. As Training and Development Manager I am always looking for ways to develop our people and this is one of those opportunities we could not miss out on.”
The training days cover the definition of disability, terminology and language, models of disability, communication, disability and inclusion in the workplace and an overview of the latest legislation and barriers to participation.
An inclusive activity that re-enforces the morning’s learning takes place after lunch, which ranges from canoeing on Bassenthwaite Lake to indoor climbing.
The disability awareness training days will initially run from November 2022 to February 2023 but the organisation hopes that they will become a regular occurrence year-round.
