Unison

2nd December 2019 by Catia Neves

What was the challenge?

Unison wanted to increase their understanding of neurodiversity and approached D&A to deliver a series of workshops on dyslexia. This was back in 2012, we have been working together ever since.

What did we do?

We ran a series of successful workshops on neurodiversity.
Trained staff at Unison in how to use software, such as Dragon, the speech recognition software.
Created an inclusive technology guide for Unison members.
We offer regular consultancy support on issues relating to disability inclusion.

What were the benefits of our approach?

“I first started working with D&A in 2012 when we asked the team to deliver some neurodiversity awareness workshops for us” says Davinder Sandhu, Acting Head of Staff Learning Learning & Development at Unison.

“They went down really well. What was unique was that they had first hand experience of some of the barriers people face with disabilities. There are lots of dyslexic organisations out there, but D&A are unique.

“Since then we’ve worked with D&A on a consultancy basis and whenever we develop something new we get the team to look at it and give advice. For example, when we created a dyslexia handbook, we included friendly learning environments and we created an e-learning module on raising awareness of dyslexia.

“D&A have become our go-to people whenever we need some expertise.”

“If our members ask for information about disabilities, I would check with D&A as they have such in-depth specialist knowledge and are a great resource to call on their expertise.

“D&A are great at coming up with suggestions that work for us. Rather than saying ‘we’ve got this software for you to use’, instead they focus on what is needed rather than offering a hard sell. They are easy to work with, friendly and have a good understanding of what we need – that’s what I find really useful.