Ready to build an inclusive business?

We’re building a day with expert speakers, all of whom bring their lived disabled and neurodivergent experiences.

Announced so far, we have:

Chronic Illness and Work: An Introduction To Meaningful Inclusion

Delivered by Pippa Stacey (she/her) a Disabled Writer, Speaker & Charity Sector Comms Consultant.

Finding and being in work while managing a life-altering chronic illness and/or energy-limiting condition can be tough.

Using the speaker's own lived experiences and career trajectory as an example, together, we will explore the health-related and social barriers faced by this community and discuss some of the workplace adjustments and innovative ways of thinking that can help to level the playing field.

AI in Hiring

Delivered by Founder of Complexical, Dr Rachel Dugdale (she/they).

This talk will cover current and emerging uses of AI throughout the hiring process, with an emphasis on implications for disabled applicants, exploring:

• The range of tools available at different stages, from candidate search and CV screening, to automated video interviews and pay recommender systems.

• How these systems work under the hood

• The potential for bias and discrimination which emerges from the nature of the technology

• Some practical steps you can take to mitigate the risks

The Disability Confident Scheme & Your Business

Delivered by Laura-May Jennings (she/her) and Tracey Bennett (she/her) from the Disability Resource Centre.

The Disability Resource Centre supports businesses across the West Midlands to achieve Disability Confident Status, looking at their recruitment practices, and how they would retain an employee who acquired a disability.

Main Auditorium: Panels

Disability and Neurodivergence in the workplace: what employers need to know

SIC’s Non-Executive Director and Co-founder & Director of Joyfully Different, Alice Reeves (she/they) will take to the stage to host a panel of experts and explore exactly what employers need to know about creating an accessible workplace, right now.

Expert panellists include:

• Dr Mark Fosbrook PLY (he/him), Senior Policy Officer, Health and Disability (WMCA)

• Louise Connop (she/her), Senior Engagement Manager - Central (Thomas Pocklington Trust)

• Nikki Adebiyi (she/her), Founder and Director, Bounce Black

• Julian Gwinnett (he/him), Co-chair Disabled Staff Network @ the University of Wolverhampton

Industry in focus: neurodivergence in the games industry

The Association for Interactive Entertainment (Ukie) is the trade body for the UK games and interactive entertainment industry.

“Making the UK the best place to make, play and sell games since 1989.”

Expect a panel of games industry experts sharing insights from an industry with a high representation of neurodivergent professionals.

Main Auditorium: Live performance

Join us for a live performance from Elle Chante.

Elle is a musical self-expressionist based in the West Midlands UK. Fuelled by her experiences, she threads her reality of complex mental health, disability and cancer into her work. Whispering of painful and complicated subjects in an airy tone and twisting metaphors, her music has been described as ethereal, emotive and soothing.

Alongside her creative work Elle also advocates for disabled artists in the music industry - particularly those with variable or invisible illnesses. She hopes to make the world a little better through sharing her vulnerabilities and raising awareness for access barriers.

Elle’s performance will be followed by a chat about how her lived experience of disability and chronic illness impacted her career and creative process, and the work she does at Radical Body.