DISABILITY INCLUSION:

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Born with Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy, doctors predicted that Emma would never walk or talk -

but by the age of 6 she took her first independent steps and hasn’t looked back since.

 

Growing up with a physical disability, Emma has faced barriers when it comes to accessibility

and inclusion. It is not unusual for Emma to be spoken to like a child or even completely ignored

- simply because people assume that because she has a physical disability, her cognitive ability is

affected too… how wrong could they be!!

 

In her disability inclusion work, whether she is instilling confidence into customer facing teams or

educating the general public, Emma urges her audience to:  Don't 'Dis' Ability!

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Don’t ‘Dis’ Ability:

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Growing up with a physical disability life has thrown Emma numerous challenges. 

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One of the biggest challenges she has faced and still faces today is the challenge of inclusion and

battling discrimination.

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Sadly we live in a society where assumptions are made and it is too easy to judge. Emma wants people to see her as a person, before they make a judgement based on the disability that they see.

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During Emma’s disability inclusion talks she aims to educate her audiences on disability awareness and inclusion and also build confidence in communicating with people with a range of disabilities.

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Some of the key points that Emma puts across to her audiences are:

• Just because my legs don’t work, it doesn’t mean that my brain doesn’t work either 

• Be brave, say ‘hello’

• The twin powers of time and patience 

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Disability Friends:

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Having experienced discrimination from ‘well-known’ high street companies whilst trying to do business with them, Emma has developed a passion for educating and supporting businesses and customer service organisations to better understand disability and help them towards being able to deliver good customer service.

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Emma particularly wants to help customer facing members of staff to become ‘disability confident’, meaning that they are able to deliver a high-level of customer service to a diverse range of customers and clients.

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   Areas in Emma’s Disability Friends talk include:

•  Look at me, not my disability 

•  Do NOT assume or judge 

•  Be brave, Say hello 

•  Speak to me, NOT my carer 

•  Be open minded… think outside the box 

•  The twin powers of time and patience 

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Emma believes that disability inclusion and accessibility within the business and customer service sector is a two-way thing. Not only is it important for people who have disabilities to be able to access the services they require, but as a business or organisation surely you want to be open and accessible to as many clients as possible and this includes a diverse community.

 

During this talk, Emma provides practical advice for customer-facing members of staff helping them to be brave and say hello and provide them with the knowledge and skills needed to be able to offer a top class service for every client or customer.

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Emma is available to deliver disability inclusion and confidence talks and training to a range of audiences, including:

• Corporate conferences

• Business teams

• Educational establishments

• Recreational groups