We were delighted to have the opportunity to share our reflections on the research in the Law Gazette as the ‘Legally Disabled?’ project drew to a close.
You can view our article in the Law Gazette here.
‘Easy Wins’ and reasonable adjustments guidance
In coproduction with the Lawyers with Disabilities Division of The Law Society and following feedback from roundtable discussions, additional resources were produced to build on the research recommendations.
Easy Wins for small and large organisations. This document supports you to start or improve the process of understanding barriers faced by disabled people and taking steps to embed disability equality into your policies, procedures and organisational culture.
Reasonable Adjustments in organisations – best practice for disability inclusion. This guidance helps organisations understand what they’re legally obliged to do in terms of reasonable adjustments, and how to implement them.
It includes real examples from many firms and organisations collated to share best practice of what’s being done and is working right now.
Timeline
Groundbreaking new research
September 2017 marked the launch of an exciting new research project, “Legally Disabled? The career experiences of disabled people in the legal profession in England & Wales: developing future strategies.”
Prof. Debbie Foster of Cardiff University and independent researcher and photojournalist Dr Natasha Hirst undertook this research, the first of it’s kind. The Lawyers with Disabilities Division (Law Society) have been key partners in the development of the project which aims to co-produce research with disabled legal professionals. We are continuing to seek the involvement of other groups across the legal profession.
Funded by the Disability Research into Independent Living and Learning (DRILL) programme, the research investigated the barriers and solutions for disabled people across the legal profession.
Continue reading “Timeline”Senior leaders and disability inclusion
For International Day of Disabled People 2020 we shared our thoughts on how senior leaders can take action to create disability inclusive workplaces.
You can read our article here.
Season’s Greetings!
Project update
As we send our best wishes to everyone over the Christmas holidays, here is a quick progress update.
Following a successful series of focus groups and over fifty five one-to-one interviews, we are delighted to update you on the progress of the research.
Eight focus groups took place early in 2018 in London, Manchester, Cardiff and Birmingham with disabled legal professionals including paralegals, solicitors, barristers, judges, trainees and retirees.
We recently completed the second stage of the project – one to one interviews. These explored individual experiences in more depth. We are currently finalising the analysis of the interviews to draw out the key research themes. There is so much useful information from the interviews!
What next?
Over the first few weeks of 2019, the report on the initial findings of the research will be drafted. A questionnaire will also be developed and disseminated as widely as possible to identify how common certain experiences are for disabled legal professionals.
Later in the year we will hold a conference to share and discuss the findings of the research.
A Research Reference Group consisting of disabled legal professionals from a diversity of backgrounds have supported us with the ongoing development and implementation of the project.
Thank you to all who have taken part in the interviews and focus groups. Your openness about your experiences has been incredibly valuable and will enable us to produce a report and recommendations that we hope will have an impact on improving how the legal professional includes disabled people.
We’d love to talk to you!
If your group, network or firm would like us to come along and discuss our findings over the Spring and Summer please do get in touch. We also value all support that you can give with sharing the questionnaire and research findings as we progress the project.
Many more people have expressed an interest in being involved in other ways. If you haven’t already been in touch and you’d like to be involved, you can reach us on info@legallydisabled.com
Please take a look around the website to find out how you can participate and follow the progress of the work.