When Simone Biles announced her break to concentrate on her mental wellbeing she received an outpouring of support. Simone tweeted “the outpouring love & support I’ve received has made me realize I’m more than my accomplishments and gymnastics which I never truly believed before.” Via twitter, Simone was receiving support from her online community. People from all corners of the globe were helping her maintain her Social Wellness. She also received support from a different community, other professional athletes – people who shared her profession. Her fellow team USA gymnasts offered support as well as former Olympic figure skater, Adam Rippon, British gymnast Max Whitlock and Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba, just to name a few.

Research has shown that 75% of disabled people have had to leave a store or website, unable to go through with their purchase because of their disability. Last year, a survey by accessibility review website, Euan’s Guide, found that 93% of respondents try to find disabled access information before they visit somewhere new. WelcoME is an app which has recently launched. The app enables users to set up a unique profile where they can list factors such as their access needs and support they may require. Businesses also register on the app. Current businesses using the app include Scottish Parliament, Salford Leisure and Edinburgh branches of Next. When the user selects a business that is also using the app the business receives the information from the user’s profile as well as advice linked to the information the user has inputted e.g. how to interact with a guide dog. Businesses can ensure that any support such as a sighted guide are readily available enabling the visitor to immediately start their work out or shopping spree.

The app doesn’t just benefit that particular user. It benefits future users as well. By providing accessibility training that the business can then immediately put into practice staff are more confident for the next time that customer, or someone with a similar disability, visits.

Similar to the training offered by WelcoME, at eQS we ensure that all new members of staff complete our Disability Awareness Course which provides knowledge and facts about disability today from legislation to appropriate support. Please drop me a message if you’d like to talk more about our disability confidence course and the possibility of offering it to your workforce.

Pre-pandemic it was health and safety and fire regulations that determined the amount of people that could attended an event. Now venues are unable to run events at full capacity to ensure social distancing can take place.

By offering a hybrid event; giving the option for people to attend in person or remotely, you’re opening yourself up to a larger audience. This is where the event is not just face-to-face and using elements of digital tools, or distinctly online only but truly merges the two together to cater for the needs of in-person attendees and remote attendees at the same time. With hybrid events businesses no longer have to worry about travel or accommodation costs if an event is taking place at the other end of the country or the other side of the world. Simply login and experience the event at home or in the office and participate with discussions happening live in the room.

During April and May last year Learning Labs had planned to host the CPD Revolution events from eight locations across the UK. Obviously, these could not take place in person, so we moved the sessions online, changed the content accordingly and decided to reschedule the live events to the end of the year (more on how that turned out in a minute). Overall, we had 462 people attend the online sessions. Before we had to move the events online, we had 323 people booked on the live events.

Sadly, our rescheduled CPD Revolution live events coincided with another national lockdown at the end of 2020. We evolved the series further and created our CPD Rev TV live stream event. In the feedback for our online events several people listed not having to travel as a positive. The pandemic has prompted us to look into the feasibility of our next CPD Revolution series potentially being a hybrid event to ensure as many people as possible can attend. You can view the highlights of our CPD Rev TV live stream events via the video below:

Greta Thunberg first made it into the public eye in 2018 at the age of 15. She had started spending her school days outside the Swedish Parliament to call for stronger action on climate change by holding up a sign that read Skolstrejk för klimatet (School strike for climate).

Greta was diagnosed with autism during childhood, at the age of 12. When Greta first made it into the public eye, she did not disclose her autism diagnosis not because she was ashamed of it but because she knew (in her own words): “many ignorant people still see it as an ‘illness’, or something negative”. This unfortunately still rings true with many trolls targeting her on social media due to her autism. Greta has fought her corner brilliantly often using humour to silence her critics, who sometimes include world leaders. After one trolling experience Greta tweeted: “when haters go after your looks and differences, it means they have nowhere left to go. And then you know you’re winning!” Her autism is now something she freely talks about in interviews describing it as gift that “makes me see things from outside the box. I don’t easily fall for lies, I can see through things.”

At just 18 years old she has already received several honours and awards such as inclusion in Time’s 100 most influential people, being the youngest Time Person of the Year, inclusion in the Forbes list of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women (2019) and three consecutive nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize (2019–2021). By being vocal about her autism and standing up to trolls Greta is using her platform to help educate people on autism as well as showing autistic people old and young that they don’t need to hide in the shadows. They have a voice and they can use it to create great change.

During her career as a Paralympic swimmer, Jessica-Jane Applegate MBE has set more than 70 British records. At the age of 15 she was the first British S14 swimmer to win gold in this category. When she was four years old she was diagnosed with autism. Similar to Chris Packham and Greta Thunberg, Jessica-Jane uses her voice to educate and raise awareness around autism, particularly autism in sport.

In the summer of 2019 Jessica-Jane was a guest speaker at the very first Sport You Can conference. The conference took place in parliament and showcased the best examples of inclusion within sport for people with learning disabilities such as autism. Speaking at the event Jessica-Jane said “Sport must become accessible to everyone whether you want to take part yourself, coach, volunteer, spectate or socialise. It’s fantastic for physical and mental health and actually changes lives.” Unfortunately, the event did not take place last year due to the pandemic but hopefully it will become an annual event.

From March until the end of June last year, there were almost one million downloads of the ‘Couch to 5K’ app. This was a 92% increase compared to the same period in 2019. I am proud to say I am one of the people who downloaded the app. I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed running and how much it positively affected my mental wellness.

A 2019 study found that spending just 20 minutes in a park, even if you don’t exercise during that time, is enough to improve your mental wellbeing. Even if I don’t feel up for a run, I aim to walk 10,000 steps a day. I use it as a time to reflect (more on that later) and to listen to some podcasts. My favourites at the moment are Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place and Grounded by Louis Theroux. I also have the added benefit of interacting with other people even if it is a simple ‘hello’ to a dog walker. I think we can all agree social interactions are one of the main things people have missed the most during lockdowns.

At the beginning of the year not only was it dark, cold and wet but we were entering our third lockdown. To try and keep myself focussed on what I wanted to achieve in 2021 I made a goals board for the year ahead. There were big goals, like passing my driving test, but also smaller goals such as drinking more water and reading a book a month. So far this year I have read ‘Everything I know about love’ by Dolly Alderton, ‘Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race’ by Renni Eddo Lodge and I am currently reading ‘Not a Life Coach’ by James Smith. The process of making my 2021 goals board not only supported my sense of self-esteem and purpose (which are key drivers of Spiritual Wellness) but also helped maintain my Intellectual Wellness, which is all about stimulating your mind.

Recent research has found that autistic graduates are the least likely of all disabled students to find employment. Only 33% of autistic graduates are in full-time work. In 2018 the Westminster AchieveAbility Commission conducted a survey of 600 neurodivergent people in the UK which found 52 per cent had faced discrimination during recruitment processes. So why not, during the recruitment process, email questions to neurodiverse candidates in advance or arrange interviews so the candidate doesn’t have to travel during busy rush hours? UK charity, Ambitious about Autism, has teamed up with Santander Universities UK to create the Higher Education Network – an employment programme specifically for autistic students and graduates. The programme helps autistic students and graduates access paid internships and tailored careers support and advice. There are 17 universities signed up to the programme covering all corners of the UK from Bangor University to Kingston University London to Northumbria University Newcastle. Ambitious about Autism trains careers staff at these universities so they can fully support autistic students.

As part of the programme autistic students and graduates at the universities can take part in a six-week internship. The aim of these six-week internships is to encourage students to prepare, apply, successfully complete and reflect on their work experience while at the same time effectively educating businesses and organisations on the benefits neurodiversity can bring to their workforce. These internships are due to start in June this year. Click here to find out more about the internships and how businesses and organisations can get involved.