Celebrating Disability Awareness Day – 16 July 2023
Disability Awareness Day celebrates diversity and the contributions of people who are differently abled. The goal for this day is to encourage others to gain a better understanding of people with disabilities and promote inclusivity.
Disability inclusion is mentioned often, but what does it mean? It’s one thing to be aware of differences, but it takes a conscious effort to understand and appreciate the paths that people of all abilities take to reach common goals. Disability inclusion takes away labels and opens minds to see the value of each unique individual.
We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed Employer. We believe that everyone should be able to achieve their full potential and are committed to creating equal opportunities within our business.
I am immensely proud to be the People Lead for disability at Avove, and it’s fantastic that we have already signed up to be a Disability Confident Committed Employer as part of our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy. It really is wonderful to see, that as a company, Avove is going out of its way to support people with disabilities and to be inclusive.
“I have a disability myself due to arthritis, so I feel I can bring a wealth of knowledge and understanding when it comes to supporting people with disabilities.”
HR Manager, Karen Claridge
Avove Finance Manager, Tara Ferris, shared her personal story to promote understanding and highlight the importance of Disability Awareness Day.
A lot of disabilities are hidden, and most people would not be aware that I have a disability. I was born with winged scapula (limited movement to my left arm due to muscle paralysis) and at the age of 18 months, I was diagnosed with a dislocated hip which was later found to be due to an underdeveloped hip bone. I had to undergo many operations to reconstruct my hip bone and also operations on my knee, in an attempt to equalise my leg discrepancy. Unfortunately, despite the surgeon’s best efforts, these operations were unsuccessful – a side effect of this is mechanical arthritis.
Avove offers a lot of benefits, including flexible working which means I am able to work from home. Having disabled parking close to the offices is a great benefit to me and I never have any issues parking when I visit the office.
I find Avove is open and approachable when discussing any suggested improvements or adjustments to my working environment. It is great to see that as part of the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion strategy, disability is on the agenda, and I am looking forward to helping shape what this looks like for our colleagues and the business.”
Disability Awareness Day is a yearly event that aims to spread information and promote services that are available to help disabled people to live more independently.