November 27, 2017, by Zoë Goodwin

Make sure you count: Talking about disability at UoN

Once again this year we’re excited to be hosting a range of events across the University as part of Disability December. Whether it’s an evening of comedy or a lunch time session about mental health, we hope you can take time out from the busy run up to the holidays to join us in raising awareness about disability.

This year, we’re putting a focus on disclosing disability. Currently, just 2.6% of staff at the University of Nottingham have disclosed a disability, compared with a national average of nearly 5%. When we spoke to staff about this, it became clear that many of you weren’t sure how to disclose that you were disabled, and some of you were unsure about who to ask about reasonable adjustments.

Why bother?

Monitoring equality data allows us to see where staff may be facing barriers so that we can work to remove them.

You can tell us about your disability for equality monitoring purposes using the MyView online portal. If you aren’t able to access MyView there is an online Equality Data Monitoring Form that you can use instead. The form should be sent to HR once completed and can be accessed here: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/hr/guidesandsupport/absenceandannualleave/sicknessabsence/index.aspx. This data will be held confidentially and securely.

The data that we hold helps the University to better understand the diversity of our staff, and will be used to help ensure that University services and practices are working for everyone through the equality monitoring that we undertake. Holding this data also enables us to better support individual needs by facilitating the ability to discuss individual reasonable adjustment that employees may need. By submitting this information, you are giving the University permission to include your data when we look at the overall experience of disabled staff – it won’t be used to identify you personally for this purpose. The only time data would be considered at a personal level would be if there was a need to support you personally during the course of your employment with the University of Nottingham.

Equality affects you. Make sure you are included in our staff data by updating your details online.

But what about me? Will I get more support?

As outlined above, telling us about your disability online via the MyView portal or by completing and returning the Equality Data Monitoring Form helps us to better understand the diversity of our staff to inform current and future policy and practice, and improve the overall experience of working at the University. But that might not help you access support that is available right now. To address this, when you make a new disability disclosure you will be contacted by HR as recognition of your declaration and to encourage you to discuss any adjustments that you need with your line manager. If you need support more urgently please contact HR proactively at the earliest opportunity. If you feel that you do need adjustments these must be discussed with your line manager at the appropriate time.

You may not feel that you need any adjustments in order for you to carry out your role, however we would encourage you to make the declaration nonetheless. Should your situation change please do speak to your line manager about how they can support you.

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