Disability and Neurodiversity Review published

The University of Reading has today published the final report of its Disability and Neurodiversity Review.

The report sets out ten recommendations to ensure fairer and more equal treatment for all colleagues.

Key highlights include:

• Empowering line managers and teams to better support disabled colleagues
• Provide training and resources on disability inclusion
• Conduct an accessibility review of campus to identify where remedial actions need to be taken to achieve agreed set of baseline needs
• Continue to develop our inclusive approach to recruitment
• Enhance progression and promotion opportunities for disabled and neurodivergent academic and professional services staff

Vice-Chancellor Professor Robert Van de Noort commissioned the review in February 2021 in response to feedback from colleagues in our Staff Disability Network that our University could do better for disabled and neurodiverse colleagues, and colleagues with chronic or long-term illnesses.

Robert said, “We all need to learn more about neurodiversity, chronic mental health conditions, ableism, and more. Education is a fundamental building block for the much-needed change.

“As an institution we must strive to remove the structural barriers holding disabled colleagues back. I believe that the ten recommendations of this report will set us up for success in achieving this.

The University provides a higher level of support and availability for disabled students, including a dedicated Disability Advisory Service. This highlights the need to focus on disabled colleagues in this review. 

Professor Elizabeth McCrum, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education and Student Experience), who co-lead the review said,

“It has been truly heartening to see how committed colleagues from across our University are to creating a better and more inclusive working environment.

We still have much to do but this is a great starting point. I look forward to working with the Disability and Neurodiversity Action Plan Group and the Staff Disability Network on making these recommendations happen.”

Dr Allan Laville, Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, co-lead the report said,

“As a disabled and neurodivergent individual, I am delighted to see the publication of this review! Thank you to everyone who shared their lived experiences, which directly informed our 10 recommendations to improve representation, staff experience and advancement, and culture.”

Working towards disability and neurodiversity inclusion

The review was set up to better understand issues facing staff and explore what more can be done to improve inclusion for disabled and neurodivergent colleagues.

The review builds on the work of the Disability and Neurodiversity Action Plan Group, launched in 2020, which aims to build a welcoming, inclusive and supportive environment for disabled colleagues. In recent years the University has already taken these steps to improve life for disabled colleagues:

• committed to Level one of the Disability Confident Scheme
• launched the Sunflower Hidden Disabilities lanyard scheme

Themes

The review is structured around three themes that address the key challenges in relation to disability and neurodiversity, and identify the breadth of the University activities to support positive action:

• Recruitment, retention and representation
• Staff experience and advancement
• Culture

‘Nothing about us without us’

Key to this report has been listening to and learning from our disabled colleagues. Throughout the report we have aimed to abide by the Disability Rights Movement’s mantra; “Nothing about us without us”.

Colleagues were asked to share their lived experiences through a variety of ways to capture the voices and make the invisible visible. These included focus groups, one-on-one discussions with the Staff Disability Network and anonymous surveys. These findings have directly informed all of our 10 recommendations.

Recommendations

Achieving these recommendations and advancing disability and neurodiversity inclusion here at Reading is the responsibility of everyone. Each of the 10 recommendations has clearly stated accountability for implementation, and overall implementation will be overseen by the Disability and Neurodiversity Action Plan Group, and progress monitored by the University Executive Board.

Dr Yota Dimitriadi as co-chair of the Staff Disability Network said ‘'The Network welcomes the recommendations of the review as an institutional commitment towards positive changes in the working lives of disabled colleagues and the opportunity to celebrate more the contributions that we make at the workplace'.