The Inclusion Imperative by Stephen Frost

Author:Stephen Frost
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780749471309
Publisher: Kogan Page

Reasonable and unreasonable adjustments

We produced information about the Games Maker programme in a range of languages, again to show intent, but stressed that English was a requirement for the position. In the application process we asked about accessibility requirements and made every possible adjustment at interview stage. We provided reasonable adjustments, such as meeting visually impaired candidates at the station and supporting them to the selection centre. Andrew Newman, one of our brilliant Volunteer Managers, recounted a story of an upset mother. Normally accustomed to ‘mothering’ her learning-disabled son, she was perplexed at our customer service that spoke directly to him, not to her. When she complained, I backed Andrew all the way for doing a brilliant job and delivering our inclusive approach superbly – we talked direct to the person, not about them to their ‘carer’.6

Reasonable adjustments are what they imply. They are not, as some candidates or spectators requested, unreasonable adjustments. If it were unreasonable at the application process, it would probably be more so at Games time. I was made aware of one individual who was upset because they could not bring fizzy drinks into the park through security. Everyone knew the rules; as with airport security there was a 100 ml maximum liquid allowance. We provided a range of drinks and constant free water within the park. However, this person insisted they could only take their medicine with fizzy drinks, none of the ones we provided would do (even the fizzy drinks we provided were the wrong type). This was an example of being unreasonable. If a medical note had been produced we would have made allowances. None was forthcoming, and so we didn’t. We made special arrangements for them to go to a specific vendor to buy a fizzy drink to take their medication.

Another annoyance was the attitude of some deaf people to sign language provision. We offered sign language interpreters to anyone who requested it, at our expense. When some people didn’t have the courtesy to turn up for interview and it was too late for us to cancel the signer, we lost money, each and every time. A purist argument is that to allow equality, signers should be on hand at all times. A practical argument is that real inclusion is a two-way street. Many people were unfortunately stuck in a superficial inclusion world, preferring to disengage and complain, talking only to the already converted.

The selection centre we chose was an example of our procurement process best value criteria in action. A different venue was actually cheaper, on one criterion, but refused to put in place the accessibility requirements we would like to see to make it an inclusive centre and reduce our costs in the long run by abolishing the need for day-by-day adaptations to cope with interviewees with various access requirements. The Daily Mail picked up on this in a speech I gave in Toronto and lambasted LOCOG for ‘pushing up costs in order to meet diversity targets’.7 Needless to say,

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