What a day!

A grey (but surprisingly humid!) day in Birmingham is not, perhaps, most people’s idea of ‘inspirational’. And to be honest, as a person living with several limiting conditions, ‘inspirational’ isn’t really a word I particularly like, having been called it for completing such tasks as locating a bus stop under my own steam. “Brain damage, you know. Meningitis. And she just gets on with it. Inspirational.”

But there are some things that really, truly are inspirational: A shared goal. A desire for change and a belief it can be done. Your enthusiasm and your certainty that we can build a better word feeds mine, and mine, in turn, will feed someone else's.

Today, that was on show in buckets. From empathetic giggles over shared struggles to perception-shifting insights it’s been a day of learning. We’ve discussed so many innovative approaches to inclusion, but the thing they’ve all had in common is their emphasis on communication.

Communication is key

It was only minutes into the day when Louise Connop, speaking on the What Employers Need to Know panel, said, “Communication is a reasonable adjustment. It shouldn’t be. But it is.” This became the heartbeat of the day - communicate, communicate, communicate. Both what we talk about and how we talk about it matter - we must ask questions and be unafraid of the answers. Hosting the live podcast recording, Georgia Bondy put it well when they said, “If you didn’t have to worry about [employers] saying no, what would you ask for?”.

But communication cannot be a one way thing. It’s not surprising that we might feel discomfort advocating for ourselves by asking for accommodations. It’s not easy, and rejection could harm our relationships with our employers as well as inhibiting our abilities. That’s why employers must initiate these conversations too. Asking what your employees and contractors need to perform at their best, and, crucially, being open to what they say, should be a part of running a business.

Image ID: A selection of eight images from the SIC Conference 2024. From top left to bottom right: Dr Rachel Dugdale sat on a grey sofa speaking, Nikki Adebiji presenting during a panel discussion, 2 audience members taking notes, one of the day’s BSL interpreters, The SIC Team and our fantastic volunteers in front of the SIC selfie wall, Christopher Samuel during the Disabled Joy podcast recording, 4 panellists stood in front of the selfie wall following “neurodiversity in games”, and an audience member asking a question.

Inexpensive and easy

Potential costs are a something we hear cited frequently when we’re talking to employers, but as Cindy Archer said today in the Ukie Neurodiversity in the Gaming Industry panel: “it’s a costly thing to not care”. It is costly as an employer not just in terms of legal risk, but also staff turnover costs and lost efficiencies, and for disabled workers it could cost our very livelihoods. While it is true that we cannot let the fear of expense stop us from considering new ways of accommodating disabled people, the truth is that the fear is often unfounded.

A conference like today’s shows us that making work worth it for disabled, chronically ill and neurodivergent people is, actually, pretty easy if you want it to be. All it takes is a little advance consideration and the confidence to ask the right questions: What do you need to make this space work for you? How can we help you fulfil your potential?

It also shows us how easy it is to bake inclusivity in from the start. Much of the accessibility considerations made by SIC today were small things that you maybe didn't even notice -

A boxed lunch instead of a buffet, which reduces the risk of cross-contamination for those with allergies and is better hygiene in terms of Covid-19 and just general bugs.
Extra signage - useful to everyone but particularly for those of us with memory or concentration issues, or difficulty with directions.
A quiet break out space where you can decompress or gather your thoughts might primarily benefit us ADHDers and our autistic colleagues, but who doesn't benefit from a little tranquillity in the middle of a hectic day?
For many of us, a long day on your feet in jeans is much less difficult than a long day on your feet in a suit, so the SIC team were mainly in comfy casual rather than business dress.
And an Access Rider which was sent to everyone. This included a detailed agenda, all the considerations the team had made, and a Covid policy.

These are achievable, low and no cost and high impact changes that mean nothing to some people but everything to others.

Thank you for joining us!

While we wind down, decompress and compare notes for an even better conference next year, we’ll like to take the opportunity to thank our speakers and session leaders. Your palpable enthusiasm made our jobs easier, and your valuable knowledge made us think. What more could we want!?