Tech For Disability Inclusive Conversations 2023

Open Forum: Raising Awareness of Disability Tech and what the Government needs to know from you. 28th September at 5pm UK time on Zoom –

The UK Government has launched a Disability Action Plan including a consultation on raising awareness of assistive tech. Their suggestion is to focus on increasing knowledge within government as a way to create a driving force and a model for others.

However, we believe that a connected ecosystem is needed to sufficiently raise awareness of assistive technology on a wider scale. This includes creating consumer choice through a marketplace and providing greater support for lived experience in assistive tech by supporting disabled entrepreneurs.

An Access2Funding report by Celia Hansen (now leading a team of Angel investors for disabled entrepreneurs) and Joseph Williams (who heads up Clu, an inclusive recruitment agency and a recruitment tech startup) has lots of helpful evidence data to support the case for access to investment.

Tech For Disability has been actively engaged in consultations and roundtables in an advisory capacity with the Disability Unit and other government departments in this space.

Now we will be using this session in our Inclusive Conversation series to facilitate an open forum for the Tech for Disability community to respond to some current propositions and add to them. The aim is to feed this back and make the case for more ambitious and impactful goals. We want to hear from you what you need as resources and accessible funding to start or develop the necessary technology to benefit disabled people. What other approaches would help drive awareness to open up opportunities?

Can you help to inform Tech For Disability’s input into government policy consultations via the Disability Unit? Join this inclusive conversation to ensure that the voices and ideas of those impacted are heard!

Event format

Conversation Starters:

Joseph Williams the founder of Clu and co-founder of Access2Funding will share their findings and views.

Marc Goblot, who founded Tech For Disability and chairs the Greater London Stakeholder Network advising the Cabinet Office Disability Unit will give an overview of the policy consultation process, our activities to date and next steps.

The rest is up to you!

We want to hear your views on:

Raising awareness in government

A task force or champion to maintain and coordinate

Inclusive employment tech as a priority driver

Access to funders and the funding process

A central and updateable resource of best practices and tools in government

Consumer choice through a marketplace curated by lived experience

Any other ideas on how to achieve awareness and access to resources

Tech For Disability is a working group in Tech London Advocates.

Inclusive Conversations 2023 – Sponsored by Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates.

At Tech for Disability, we focus on supporting an ecosystem that realises the potential of tech made by and for disabled people.

It is run by Tania Duarte, Marie-Clare Fenech and Marc Goblot, who have various connections to the cause.

We are available via [email protected], and we have the following contact points:

https://techfordisability.org

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tla-tech-for-disability/

https://twitter.com/Tech4Disability

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