When you implement the right tools, strategies and processes, you witness life-enhancing results.
Founded on our professional expertise and lived experience, our suite of workshops will equip you with everything you need to transform your environments and processes. Plus, all of our support is specifically tailored to meet the needs and goals of you, your team, and your learners.
Equality, Diversity & Inclusive Practice
Enhancing inclusion isn’t just the right thing to do. When it’s done right, disability inclusion brings multiple advantages across all areas of your institution. It provides a renewed focus on staff and student experience, promoting openness and wellbeing. It builds community, creating a welcome for all: students, staff and visitors. It fosters an environment in which retention, performance and belonging are valued and enhanced.
Accessibility
71% of disabled people will click away from a web or module page if we feel it is inaccessible. The information we need is there, but it’s hidden in long words, complex sentences and difficult design.
We’ll explore how you can embed simple accessibility principles and practices effortlessly into your work to make content accessible for all.
Just as buildings should have access ramps, digital text should be readable.
We’ll introduce you to the barriers people face in accessing digital content and how we can embed the simple principles and practices that make digital content more accessible for everyone.
Ensure your environment welcomes everyone by making accessibility the foundation of your approach to planning and developing the built environment.
We’ll give you a first-hand insight into the challenges, both seen and unseen, that cause significant barriers for disabled people (students, staff and visitors).
Foundations of Disability Inclusion
Inclusive and accessible change isn’t just the right thing to do; it creates a more positive and productive learning and working environment.
In this session, our facilitator will share their lived experience as a disabled person, as well as their diversity and inclusion expertise. You’ll get a comprehensive insight into how we can transform our perceptions and understanding of disability, using practical examples from the educational environment.
From the Idiots Act to the Equality Act, learn how legislation, behaviour and attitudes towards disabled people in the UK have evolved over time.
We’ll use the legislative foundations to provide you with the space to better know your rights, learn how you’re protected, and maximise leverage when facing discrimination and disablism.
A foundation of awareness is vital. But what’s even more important is to progress those principles into practice.
This session will give you the insight and tools you need to foster sustained, accessible change across your university. We’ll examine examples of good practice from across the sector, considering the physical, digital and learning space, leaving you with a personal and collective perspective on how inclusive practice fits within your roles and responsibilities.
Identity
Designed for Higher Education staff.
This session will explore what we mean by bias, with a particular focus on unconscious, or implicit, bias. We’ll create a non-judgmental space for us to examine the biases that we hold and the impact of those biases.
You’ll leave this session not just with an awareness of unconscious biases, but also a knowledge of the practical actions you can implement to unpack and unlearn those biases.
Designed for Higher Education staff.
This three-part session will introduce you to a new, intersectional approach to inclusion.
We’ll cover:
- Access is not inclusion: we’ll demonstrate how you can improve student retention and institutional success by focusing not on providing access, but making sure people feel included.
- Enhancing EDI and embedding intersectionality: you’ll benefit from a practical, joined-up perspective to EDI that enhances equality, fosters diversity and breaks down inclusion barriers.
- Embedding the social model and championing neurodiversity: we’ll introduce you to the social model of disability, and how to embed it in your approach to EDI. You’ll see how the social model is the key to unlocking strategic and cultural success, using micro and macro examples from across the higher education sector.
Student Experience
Designed for Further Education or Widening Participation staff.
A student’s transition to higher education often begins a long time before they finally arrive on campus. The change can be intimidating, but you can set your students on the path for success by painting an accurate picture of what to expect.
This session will help you give accurate, practical support to students considering university. You’ll gain insight into the key shifts in accessing support from school to university, including differences in language and terminology. We’ll also give you the tools to better understand the Disabled Students’ Allowance and how you can ensure your students make the most of the support available to them.
Designed for students.
Former NUS Disabled Students Officer, Piers Wilkinson, will share their own lived experience as a disabled student, providing insight into every step of their journey through higher education.
You’ll learn more about what to look out for when applying for university, and leave feeling more confident in your ability to find the university that suits your learning style and personality.
We’ll equip you with an enhanced understanding of ADHD and the barriers presented to those with ADHD. Together, we’ll discuss how ADHD is defined, understood, and diagnosed.
You’ll leave this session equipped with strategies to help you alleviate the barriers and challenges experienced by people with ADHD, making environments that are more positive and inclusive for everyone.
Designed for Higher Education staff.
In the session, we will focus on the core areas of reasonable adjustments, including how to make and implement reasonable adjustments for your students.
You’ll get an insight into specific case-based examples of best practice from comparable institutions and the sector as a whole.
Finally, we’ll leave you with an important perspective on how to make reasonable adjustments one part of a robust support offering that fosters a truly inclusive environment for staff and students.
Designed for Higher Education staff.
In 2020, disabled graduates had a lower employment rate (73.4%) than non-disabled graduates (88.4%). In addition, the inactivity rate, which is based on graduates neither working or actively seeking employment, for disabled graduates (22.4%) was more than double the rate for non-disabled graduates (8.4%) (Department for Education 2021).
In this session, we’ll focus on how disability practitioners in Higher Education can play an active role in tackling the disabled graduate employment gap. You’ll leave this session with a deepened understanding of the legislation, support and resources available to support disabled graduates into employment.
Designed for Higher Education staff.
We take a positive approach to neurodiversity, exploring how diversity of thought is an asset to education.
You’ll come away from the training not with a long sheet of simple dos and don’ts but with a practical understanding of how to support neurodiversity among staff and learners.
We’ll demonstrate how and why you should champion the social model of disability; the belief that environmental and societal barriers are whatcan exclude individuals from fully participating in society. Instead of focusing on diagnoses or medical treatments, we’ll equip you with the practical strategies and working adjustments that will reduce the barriers faced by neurodiverse individuals.
Designed for Higher Education staff.
This session will explore how, in your role as a student support practitioner, you can embed the tangible provisions that will enhance the experiences of your disabled and neurodiverse students.
We’ll introduce you to the Disabled Students’ Allowance, cover key terminologies and legislation, and navigate you through the differences in support for disabled people in school, university, and the workplace.
You’ll also explore how you can champion an integrative approach across student support departments, including widening participation and student experience, to create a space of belonging for disabled students.
Realities of Lived Experience workshops will enhance attendees’ awareness and understanding of common experiences under the umbrella of disability and neurodiversity.
You can select from any of the following workshop focuses:
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Autism/Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC)
- Blind/Visual Impairment
- Chronic Fatigue
- Chronic Pain
- D/deaf/Hard of Hearing
- Mental Health
- Long-term Health Condition
- Specific Learning Difference (SpLD)
- Wheelchair use and mobility
Each session will explore what we understand about the condition, including how it’s diagnosed, medically treated, and commonly misunderstood. We’ll also show you what we can each do to break down the barriers that exclude people and create an anticipatory, knowledgeable and flexible learning and working environment.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
Designed for Higher Education staff.
Disparities in accessibility continue to form barriers for student attainment and retention. In this workshop, we’ll examine how the disabled student journey highlights the inaccessible aspects of teaching and assessment practices.
Using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as your foundation, we’ll discuss key educational principles, work through challenges, and equip you with the resources to embed UDL into your educational principles and practices.
When created and delivered effectively, your PowerPoint can capture attention, encourage thought, and maintain engagement.
By giving you an overview of how we process and absorb presented information, you’ll develop an understanding of how we can create more successful PowerPoint presentations. Covering everything from slide design to accessibility checking, you’ll learn how to create better PowerPoints.
Designed for Higher Education staff.
By setting strong and sustainable boundaries, you’re putting up a safety net that protects both you and your students.
We’ll cover the practical steps you can take as a practitioner to create a trusted professional relationship dynamic that maintains clear boundaries.
Designed for Higher Education staff.
Instilling a goal-setting approach to student support will allow your learners to take ownership of their support, setting them on the path towards enablement and independence.
We’ll take you through the theories underpinning effective goal-setting strategies, as well as practical examples of successful approaches to goal-setting, so you have all the tools you need to create a robust, goals-based approach to student support.
Designed for Higher Education staff.
Building rapport means creating a space for mutual understanding, attention, and positivity.
In this session, we’ll demonstrate how to build a good rapport, particularly considering the anxieties, experiences and expectations that students may bring to their interactions with you.
Wellbeing
We’ll explore and enhance your understanding of mental health and wellbeing.
We’ll discuss mental health conditions and how they’re assessed, classified and diagnosed. But we know that understanding a diagnosis is one small step towards creating a culture that fosters wellbeing. We’ll challenge common assumptions and prejudices, explore different models, and outline the basic principles of support that will help you embed a culture of positive mental health and wellbeing.
Develop your understanding of how mindfulness can enhance your teaching and learning practices, while helping manage stress and anxiety.
This workshop draws on principles and practices of mindfulness, demonstrating the everyday benefits of embedding mindful strategies in increasing general wellbeing. You’ll develop a catalogue of skills that help you recognise signs and symptoms of stress and anxiety and integrate mindfulness exercises in your personal and community-level practices.
Often find your head full of tasks, ideas, and deadlines? Is your desk sometimes littered with sticky notes and to-do lists?
In this session, we’ll look at the technologies that can improve your ability to manage your workflow, time and ideas more effectively.
Assistive technology, strategies and approaches
Bespoke workshops designed to introduce you to Assistive Technology (AT). We have developed an integrated approach, combining study strategies with assistive technologies to enable you to flourish and complete everyday tasks with confidence and independence.
Exploring the Diversity of Assistive Technology
Smartphones and tablets are fast becoming everyday study and learning technologies. We’ve tried and tested a wealth of apps and software encompassing every facet of university life. In this session, we’ll provide you with an overview of how to enhance study strategies using tablet and smartphone apps.
Enhance your knowledge of apps that support mental health. We’ll talk through the benefits of supporting your mental health and increase your awareness of the apps that can play a positive role in everyday life and wellbeing.
Dragon is a speech-to-text tool that allows the user to dictate directly to their computer.
Voice dictating through Dragon can remove barriers experienced by learners with specific learning differences, or those who find keyboard and mouse control inaccessible. We’ll demonstrate how Dragon can transform the learning and working experience for you or those you support.
We’ll demonstrate how Google Keep can make learning, organising and note-taking more accessible. With our expertise and live demonstrations, you’ll leave this session with a deepened understanding of how to make the most of Google Keep.
We’ll equip you with an enhanced understanding of Zotero, a powerful tool for organising citations and references and creating bibliographies.
This CPD-accredited two-day workshop will give you hands-on experience with the leading Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) software packages, as well as the latest smartphone and tablet apps.
We’ll cover the core provisions for students, including programs that provide:
- Text-to-speech
- Mind mapping
- Speech recognition
Our approach provides an accessible and inclusive exploration of each technology alongside the enabling strategies and skills that the technology can facilitate.
We know that many learners experience barriers or inequalities in accessing AT support via the DSA. That’s why we’ll give you an overview of how free and low-cost apps can reduce learning barriers for learners who are unable to access DSA, or complement DSA provisions for those who are.
Strategies for Support
We’ll show you the strategies that remove the barriers facing blind people or those who are visually impaired. You’ll expand your knowledge of the useful mobile and desktop apps, signposting to useful strategies and technologies to support people in work and education.
We’ll give you an introduction to the barriers that face d/Deaf people or those with hearing loss or tinnitus. We’ll explore the strategies and software that can make an environment more accessible, including how you can adapt your communication to be more inclusive.
Study Skills
We’ll show you the strategies that can improve your academic writing, alongside demonstrating how technologies and tools can make academic writing more accessible, efficient, and successful.
Assistive technology can make academic writing more accessible and successful. We’ll show you the key skills that will improve your academic writing.
We’ll discuss why critically evaluating information is crucial for academic success. In this comprehensive session, you’ll learn more about how to evaluate more effectively at every stage from planning to execution. We’ll embed the use of digital tools and technologies to ensure you leave the session feeling confident in your ability to critically evaluate.
Whether you’re finding it hard to concentrate, focus your attention, or clear your mind of distracting thoughts, this workshop will introduce you to simple study strategies to enhance the way you study.
You’ll come away from this session feeling more confident about how to manage focus, attention, motivation and energy.
Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts
Technology can make studying a whole lot easier, improving the speed, accuracy and success of note-taking. We’ll show you a number of solutions and demonstrate how they can be integrated with your existing technology as well as your study style and note-taking habits.
Avoiding distractions and creating an effective study space in your home can be a challenge. However, there are strategies and solutions that can be put in place to better organise your work and study flow. In this workshop, we will cover how to use technology to stay focused while studying remotely.
Although almost all of us use either Microsoft 365 or Google Suite on a daily basis, we’re rarely using them to their fullest potential. By understanding more about each suite, and how the programs within them work better together, you can start working more efficiently.
This hands-on workshop brings these suites to life, highlights the under-utilised features, and describes how to use these features as part of your studying and working practices.
In this workshop, you’ll learn how you can use technology to boost your presentation skills, both in terms of how you deliver information but also how it is displayed to your audience.
We’ll explore both Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides, giving you the tools to create and deliver top quality presentations.
You’ll leave this workshop feeling more confident in how to use simple tips and tricks to organise your revision, meet deadlines, and remain calm and focused throughout the assessment period.
We’ll show you how to make the most of the Microsoft 365 suite, mind-mapping solutions, text-to-speech software and focus apps, all enhancing your ability to create an effective study and revision strategy.
Improved organisation and time management will enhance your clarity of thought, allowing you to carry out each stage efficiently and effectively, producing higher-quality pieces of work.
In this session, we’ll reflect on how you could manage your time more effectively, sharing techniques to organise your tasks, focus your energy, prioritise your workflows and conquer your distractions.
Our inboxes and calendars underpin much of our work, but are we using them to their fullest potential?
In this session, we’ll explore the under-used features of your inbox and calendar. Find out how you can embed the tools and skills that will make it easy to coordinate meetings, documents, tasks and reminders.
Begin arranging your workshop today
Like the look of a workshop listed about? Great! Fill out our workshop booking form and a member of our team will be in contact to get everything up and running.
Alternatively, we can work with you to design a workshop that meets your specific aims and budgetary requirements. To discuss this further, contact us.
