The impact of the Disability Equality Duty on our service to users CLAUD July 2006

1
The impact of the Disability Equality Duty on
our service to usersCLAUD July 2006

• Deb Viney, Diversity Adviser, School of Oriental
  and African Studies,
• University of London
• formerly Head of the Disability Service,
• University of Southampton

2
The key aspects of the General Disability
Equality Duty

• Institutions must
• have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful
  discrimination
• actively promote equal opportunities for disabled
  people
• eliminate harassment of disabled people
• promote positive attitudes towards disabled
  people
• actively encourage the participation of disabled
  people in public life.

3
The intent behind the new legislation

• The DDA (2005) has extended the definition of
  disability, e.g. to explicitly include those with
  intermittent conditions (such as HIV, cancer and
  multiple sclerosis), but it has not assigned any
  new rights to individual disabled people.
• Public bodies are to LEAD the developments,
  setting examples of best practice for other
  sectors to follow.
• The emphasis is on making organisations more
  pro-active, rather than reactive. It applies to
  disabled students, staff and visitors.
• Rather than waiting for an individual to bring a
  complaint, organisations should be seeking ways
  to engage disabled people, in order to obtain
  their views about service developments.

4
The key aspects of the Specific Disability
Equality Duty
5
In producing the DES institutions must

• Involve disabled people in producing the scheme
  and developing the action plan.
• Identify how they will gather and analyse
  evidence to inform their actions and track
  progress.
• Set out how they will assess the impact of
  their existing and proposed activities on
  disabled people.
• Produce an action plan for the next three years
  (2007-2009).
• Report on their progress every year and review
  and make appropriate revisions to this scheme at
  least every three years.

6
Effects on service to library users 1

• Pro-active, planned developments anticipating the
  needs of disabled people, rather than reaction to
  complaints and negative feedback.
• Active, on-going involvement of disabled people
  in decision making processes as well as user
  feedback groups.
• Greater transparency of decision making
  processes.

7
Effects on service to library users 2

• Any feedback will need to be published with
  explanation of planned responses to address the
  issue which has been raised.
• Increased monitoring of disabled library users
  and of their opinions on various issues.
• Increased attentiveness to potential harassment
  of and prejudice about disabled people.

8
Effects on service to library users 3

• A programme of activities designed to encourage
  positive attitudes to disabled people
• Discover whether disabled staff would be willing
  to be role models for other disabled people,
  identified as such in publicity materials.
• Ensure all literature and publicity materials
  have positive images of disabled people and that
  these are not limited to the sections dealing
  with the needs of disabled library users (the
  images should also feature both genders and
  various ethnic groups).

9
The groups who must be considered

• Disabled students as library users
• Disabled staff as library users
• Disabled library staff
• Disabled visitors and other contacts

10
How can Library staff help the HEI to meet its
general DED? 1

• Discover who is co-ordinating the institutional
  response and ask how library staff can contribute
  to the process.
• Develop a list of all library policies and
  procedures in preparation for the institutional
  Impact Assessment. Identify those responsible
  for each policy / procedure.
• Conduct a review of library policies, procedures
  and practices to check for any unintentional
  prejudice or discrimination against any person or
  group of people who are disabled. E.g. check
  publications to ensure that some images of
  disabled people have been used, especially in
  sections which do not deal explicitly with
  disability needs.

11
How can Library staff help the HEI to meet its
general DED? 2

• Review the librarys current activities promoting
  equal opportunities and the means by which
  these activities are publicised, consider
  possible additional activities and a fresh
  publicity campaign.
• Review the library records of any past
  harassment, discrimination or other complaints,
  check for general changes / actions which could
  be taken to avoid similar situations arising
  again.
• Collate records of prior disabled user feedback
  and summarise any issues which remain
  unaddressed. Pass this information to the
  institutional co-ordinator for possible inclusion
  in the DES.

12
How can Library staff help the HEI to meet its
general DED? 3

• Establish or incorporate into a regular survey of
  all library users, specific questions about
  disability related issues and prejudice or
  harassment associated with disability.
• Review survey responses to identify changes /
  actions which could be undertaken to avoid
  similar situations arising again.
• Consider a survey of all users including a
  section specifically about disability-related
  issues (to capture the views of those who chose
  not to disclose).

13
How can Library staff help the HEI to meet its
general DED? 4

• Incorporate those changes / actions which are
  identified from the survey in the next round of
  library strategic and operational planning.
• Forward a summary of the planned changes /
  actions to your institutional co-ordinator for
  inclusion in the DES Action Plan.
• Plan a library-based campaign to actively promote
  positive attitudes to people with disabilities.
  E.g. displays of books on disability issues
  display of fictional work by authors who are
  disabled people.

14
How can Library staff help the HEI to meet its
general DED? 5

• Actively encourage disabled people to engage in
  all generic user feedback activities. E.g.
  ensure the demographic section of the regular
  user survey includes a disability section ask
  about disability issues in the generic survey.
• Consider feedback events specific to disabled
  library users or even to sub-groups of disabled
  people (e.g. a group of people who are wheelchair
  users, a group who are visually impaired).
• Make disabled peoples involvement and the
  results from it as visible as possible (e.g. a
  targeted campaign of posters saying Disabled
  library users told us that so we did ).

15
How can Library staff help the HEI to meet its
general DED? 6

• Train all staff to ensure that they display
  positive attitudes to disabled people and have a
  broad understanding of the needs of disabled
  library users.
• Train line managers to observe their teams
  behaviours and attitudes and to challenge
  inappropriate attitudes (including behaviour)
  towards disabled people every time they observe
  such attitudes.
• Also train all staff to challenge inappropriate
  attitudes (including behaviour) towards disabled
  people every time they encounter such attitudes
  (e.g. in students or visitors).

16
How can Library staff help the HEI to meet its
general DED? 7

• Contact all library staff explaining the reason
  for collecting disability data, encouraging
  disclosure and invite staff to review their
  personal data.
• Analyse the library staff data to establish the
  proportion of disabled staff, compare with
  appropriate national and other benchmarks.
• Consider whether positive action strategies might
  be appropriate for the recruitment process for
  any library posts which arise.

17
How can Library staff help the HEI to meet its
general DED? 8

• Review library staff training activities,
  promotions and other rewards over the last three
  years and check for under-representation of
  disabled staff.
• Ensure that staff appraisal and other processes
  throughout the employment cycle include
  consideration of the staff members disability
  related needs.
• E.g. consideration of technical resources
  or human support or additional training which may
  be useful.
• Consider whether positive action strategies are
  required to encourage disabled staff members to
  apply for staff development, promotion and other
  rewards.

18
How can Library staff help the HEI to meet its
general DED? 9

• Check for any inequalities in the proportions of
  staff members who have resigned or left consider
  conducting exit reviews to check for issues which
  need to be addressed.
• Conduct an anonymous survey of all library staff
• (or other methodology) to discover
• A) whether there are staff who have chosen
  not to disclose a
• disability and if so why?
• B) what staff disability-related issues
  remain to be addressed in
• the library as a work environment?
• C) whether staff have experienced
  disability-related prejudice or
• harassment?

19
How can Library staff contribute to the
development of the DES and its Action Plan?

• The institutional co-ordinator IC must include
  in the DES a baseline provision statement re
  current resources and services for disabled
  students, staff, visitors and others. Library
  staff can contribute to the library section of
  this statement.
• Any existing plans for developments can also be
  passed to the IC for inclusion in the Action
  Plan.
• Leadership from the top is a key principal in
  implementing the DES, so Library senior managers
  can set an example for others by leading on this
  issue and raising it at senior management level.

20
Library staff contributions to the DES and its
Action Plan 2

• the DES Action Plans must be linked to
  Institutional and Library strategic plans.
• it includes setting appropriate disability
  related targets for both staff and student
  activity.
• consider offering incentives for disability
  related activities.

21
Library staff contributions to the DES and its
Action Plan 3

• the DES must explain how disabled students were
  involved in producing the Scheme and its action
  plans. Library staff can contribute to the
  involvement section by describing existing and
  planned activities for capturing users views.
• The HEI must also explain how disabled staff were
  involved in producing the DES AP, so library
  staff can contribute staff users views and also
  the views of disabled library staff.

22
Library staff contributions to the DES and its
Action Plan 4

• if the library has any disability specialist
  staff, they will also need to have some input
  into the DES AP.
• There may be other local disabled people or
  organisations representing disabled people who
  could contribute to the DES process.
• E.g. do other local libraries have user
  feedback which could be helpful to us? What
  about our feeder colleges?
• Library staff can help to determine the
  appropriate comparators for use in analysing our
  data.

23
Library staff contributions to the DES and its
Action Plan 3

• Library staff may also have a contribution to
  make in the DES sections concerned with the
  ethical / business / best practice case(s) for
  inclusion.
• There may also be a contribution to the plans for
  prioritising Impact Assessments (which must be
  undertaken for all policies, procedures and
  practices).
• Library data collection (quantitative and
  qualitative) and analysis re staff (recruitment,
  retention, achievement) and students will
  contribute to the evidence sections of the DES.

24
Library staff contributions to the DES and its
Action Plan 4

• The library also has a role in...
• encouraging disclosure by both students and staff
• collecting monitoring statistics including both
  those which are currently available and those
  which may be needed in future.
• publishing or publicising that information
• the on-going engagement of disabled students
• the on-going involvement of disabled staff.

25
Library staff contributions to the DES and its
Action Plan 5

• Library staff could take a role in...
• considering existing research on the experiences
  of disabled people in similar institutions,
  including
• the views of disabled students
• the views of disabled applicants for courses /
  posts
• the views of disabled staff
• the views of others
• prioritisation of SMART targets for the DES AP

26
Library staff contributions to the DES and its
Action Plan 6

• More areas where library staff may have a role...
• embedding disability into the organisational
  culture
• discovering what do not we know about our
  institution (and establishing how we will find
  out)
• reviewing previous complaints and the complaints
  process
• monitoring HR processes
• investigating any differentials between disabled
  and non-disabled staff / students

27
Library staff contributions to the DES and its
Action Plan 7

• The final sections of the DES AP deal with the
  future looking ahead to discover
• - the challenges we can anticipate
• - any changes to the sector / institution we
  can anticipate.
• Library staff can contribute to this process
  of anticipation by informing colleagues of future
  developments and forthcoming challenges in their
  own areas of expertise.

28
Library related issues 1

• Developments in services for people with print
  impairments, especially electronic books and
  documents (e.g. study packs)
• DAISY formats
• digitally accessible information systems
• other electronic resources (e.g. websites)
• the need to develop NATIONAL and INTERNATIONAL
  catalogues of such resources.

29
Library related issues 2

• Assistive technology every library staff member
  with user contact should have at least a general
  familiarity with the devices available to help
  with access to print.
• Emergency egress plans for disabled individuals
  and visitors still need to be developed in many
  institutions.

30
Library related issues 3

• Physical access issues publicity materials need
  to be honest about any limitations and the
  adjustments which address those limitations (e.g.
  book fetching from inaccessible areas).
• Quiet study rooms some students have a
  particular need for quiet study space, and
  libraries are often the quietest area in which to
  locate such facilities.