DISABILITY AWARENESS
Does your team need help focusing on disabled clients and their unique needs? We find many team members really want to help disabled people but are worried about how to approach someone and what to do. Our training gives your team the confidence and tools they'll need to help.
We deliver training on every aspect of disability awareness. For example:
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Training staff to confidently help disabled customers.
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Training staff to better support disabled colleagues.
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Training companies on how to recruit and retain disabled colleagues.
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Training companies on how to attract and retain disabled customers and their families.
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Training educators on how to confidently deliver training with disabled students in mind.
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Mystery Shopper to look at discovering barriers
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Develop policies and systems to remove barriers
DISABILITY CONFIDENCE COURSE
7.6m working age people in the UK have a disability. If you're not actively recruiting talent your competitors probably are...
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The Disability Confident Scheme from the UK Government aims to support employers like you to make the most of the talent disabled people can bring to your workplace.
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Disability Confident organisations play a leading role in changing attitudes for the better. They’re changing behaviour and cultures in their own businesses, networks and communities, and reaping the benefits of inclusive recruitment practices.
The scheme helps employers recruit and retain great people, and:
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draw from the widest possible pool of talent
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secure high quality staff who are skilled, loyal and hard working
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improve employee morale and commitment by demonstrating that you treat all employees fairly
It helps customers and other businesses identify those employers who are committed to equality in the workplace.
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BlindAmbition will help your organisation become Disability Confident.
PASSENGER ASSISTANCE TRAINING SCHEME (PATS)
Passenger Assistance Training is becoming a legal requirement for all cab drivers to be trained in. We have a wealth of experience to share that will help you deliver the best service for your passengers and often with very small changes.
A Comprehensive Approach
The training will take one full day, approximately and will have no more than 16 drivers in a group at a time.
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The day will be 6 hours of training with two 15 min breaks and lunch for 30 mins - starting at 9am and finishing at 3pm.
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Module A: The Role of the Passenger Assistant
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This is the ‘foundation’ module because it is a starting point for further training. It covers the role and responsibilities of a passenger assistant, including legal, practical and safety issues.
Module B1: Passenger Awareness and Assistance
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This module is intended for passenger assistants whose duties involve assisting passengers with disabilities, including wheelchair users but does not cover wheelchair users who travel in their wheelchairs. It contains information on professional etiquette, assisting passengers with walking difficulties, passengers who are blind or partially sighted, passengers who are deaf or hard of hearing and passengers who may use wheelchairs to get to the vehicle.
Module B2: Assisting Passengers who travel in their Wheelchairs
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This module is intended for passenger assistants whose duties include assisting passengers who travel in their wheelchairs. It looks at safe use of passenger lifts and wheelchair tie-down and occupant restraint systems (WTORS) and all the issues surrounding wheelchair user safety on vehicles.
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This module will only be relevant for vehicles who are transporting the passenger in their wheelchair. (Most minicabs don’t have the capacity to do this, so this will be an optional extra module for drivers under your council who have specially adapted vehicles. I may outsource this to a specialist training facility as I would need a minibus, and the right equipment to simulate).
Module C1: Supervising Children and Young People with Special Needs
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This includes supervising children and young people with learning difficulties, autism, physical disabilities, sensory restrictions and emotional or behavioural difficulties
Module C2: Working with Adults Who Require Care and Supervision
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This includes adult passengers with learning difficulties, dementia, physical disabilities, sensory restrictions and people in mental or emotional distress
VISUAL AWARENESS
Visual Awareness Training is focused on training your teams on how best to interact with Blind and Partially Sighted people; as customers or colleagues. ​​Our training is an ever-evolving system, each organisation has different needs so we can tailor our training program to match your exact requirements. For example, you might be a Charity, Government Department, Museum, Global Corporation or small independent business.
When Seema ran her first business she always felt that if she started by addressing the needs of disabled customers - the customer service for the able-bodied would be easy. In her case it could be as simple as providing a member of staff to walk a client to a bus stop on her visit. Recognising the struggle someone makes to reach you and helping make that easier makes a big difference.​
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We offer both in-person and Live Video Streaming (Zoom, Teams etc) training sessions.
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Over two million people in the UK live with sight loss. That’s around one person in thirty. Of these, around 360,000 people are registered with their local authority as Blind or Partially Sighted. It is predicted that by 2020 the number of people with sight loss will rise to over 2,250,000. – RNIB
Our training covers a range of topics including:-​
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Simulation Visual Awareness exercises so that team members can understand the experience of severely sight impaired or partially sighted people using your service. (It's often these experiences that will stick in the participant's memory and trigger the training lessons when team members return to work and put into practice.)
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Lived Experience Trainers - Seema Flower is registered blind herself and was voted one of the Power 100 most influential disabled people in the UK by the Shaw Trust 2020.
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Building confidence on how to help
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The senses - how important sight is and the huge impact it has when it is lost. You’ll be amazed. (Chocolate may be involved).
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Group discussion brings out team members' experiences and thoughts for discussion in a safe space.
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Some group members may never have met a visually impaired person – it can be surprising to find that we’re not all quiet and retiring.
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When Seema ran her first business she always felt that if she started by addressing the needs of disabled customers - the customer service for the able-bodied would be easy. In her case it could be as simple as providing a member of staff to walk a client to a bus stop on her visit. Recognising the struggle someone makes to reach you and helping make that easier makes a big difference.​
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Visual Awareness Training Certificates
Exclusive Visual Awareness Training Certificates can be provided for each participant on request.
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Training Format: In-Person
We would always recommend In-Person training where possible. We believe that taking participants away from their normal environment helps them absorb the training on a deeper level. We can also roleplay scenarios and plan physical exercises (sighted guiding for example) which again breaks up the training and is more deeply absorbed.
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Training Format: Live Video streaming (Zoom, Teams etc)
We can deliver training via video streaming platforms and have done so successfully throughout Covid. Like many businesses we've been impressed by how effective this can be and it can be much less disruptive to teams, especially if the team is dispersed and would need to travel to centralised training. However, nothing beats being there. It's a bit like a live concert, you can watch it on a TV, even in a cinema but nothing beats being there and being there ensures the lessons are absorbed more deeply.​
EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
It is important that your customers and staff are treated equally and an inclusive environment is created. Equality and Diversity Training will help your teams understand how everybody should have an equal opportunity and are not treated differently or discriminated against because of their characteristics including age, race, gender, identity, class, sexual orientation, religion or belief, disability or the passport they hold.
Did you know under UK discrimination law, an employee can claim against an individual and a company for discrimination? The company has a defence if it can prove that it has gone through reasonable steps to prevent the employee committing that act. One way is to ensure that all of your employees have undergone Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Training including unconscious bias.
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At Blind Ambition, we want to ensure that your organisation has met its legal obligations but also that you make Equality, Diversity and Inclusion a way of life and something that comes naturally as opposed to a tick box exercise or just a legal obligation. Our Training includes ‘unconscious bias in the workplace’ and caters for all staff at all levels and across all sectors and will help your teams understand how everybody or everyone:
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should have an equal opportunity
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should not be treated differently
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are not discriminated against because of their characteristics including age, race, gender, identity, class, sexual orientation, income, religion or belief, disability or the passport they hold
As with all our packages, training is bespoke and ‘tailor made’ to your requirements and can be adapted to meet your needs.
DISABILITY HEALTH CHECK
Let me work with you to create a disability friendly employer brand! This includes:
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Audit of current policies and processes
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Recruitment review
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Disability Access Audit, Report and Recommendations
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Staff and Management Training