User case study - Empowering Staff: How the University of Leicester Uses Inspiration to Support Inclusion

Ursula Bilson, is the Staff Disability Adviser at the University of Leicester, and she plays a key role in ensuring that all staff have access to the assistive technology support they need from day one. Reflecting the university’s commitment to creating an inclusive and supportive working environment, Ursula explains: “having an Inspiration site licence saves the university money and enables employees to make an impact right from the start!”

We caught up with Ursula recently to learn more about how the university is using its Inspiration site licence to support and empower staff across the campus community.

How is Inspiration being used as a reasonable adjustment for university staff?

“A lot of staff, even if they don’t have a long-term disability or condition, are coming to promotion and information events that we’re putting on about what AT we’ve got available for themselves and their students. Actually, I had a conversation yesterday with somebody who's been here a couple of months, it was actually a dyslexic member of the neurodiversity staff group, and they didn’t realise all the software we had available that they could use instantly. That has cut out a lot of reasonable adjustments so to speak, because we've done that anticipatory piece of work. The wait times for access to work are incredibly long, so it's another really good thing that we have this here. You don't have to apply for funding because it's just there on the system, ready to use. But what I do do is where we have an Access to Work application and there's recommendations, where it lists something like a visual planning tool, because there's lots of different ones they're recommending, we're always having the conversation, “well, did you know we've got this on our software system,does this meet your needs?” And in some cases it does, so we're not then funding another product. Occasionally there are things that people may want something different from, so we will always then look out for that person, and that's fine. But for a lot of people, they just want something to get rid of the blank page syndrome, put your ideas down and order things. It's meeting their needs. So we do save a fair bit of money by having the site license, we're not buying separate licences where people have gone through Access to Work and this has been recommended. Because for the vast majority of staff, Access to Work is not fully funded. There's quite a big contribution we have to put in as a large employer. So it covers all of that.”

How easy is it for staff to learn how to use Inspiration?

"“For most people, whilst there's so much resources on the website for how to use Inspiration - they don't usually need it to get going. So then it's for the more advanced features that they're looking to have specific training for. And, it’s time efficient - where most people have fairly short probation times, and in fact, most people's probation period in a role is going to be shorter than the current wait times for Access to Work, so it's giving people a better start to their employment, and a better chance to prove themselves in the role.”

When or how were you first introduced to Inspiration?

“It was version 6 back in 2003. I got a job working as a DSA assessor and the circumstances were that the waiting list was so high and huge at the time, and sadly, the person I was working with didn't have time to train me. But I got one afternoon a week when the assessment room was free and I could sit in there and play with all of the stuff. And so I learned Inspiration first and then I used Inspiration to do mind maps of some of the documents - basically to understand how to do the assessments. I was given the regulations and told to read them - which is horrendous for a dyslexic person to do! But I had a six month waiting list and had to prioritise the students, so I used it myself in that first instance and then started to make my own maps of things to remind me of what to say to students. So I got real life experience of using it..

And then I became an Open University Master's student myself and used it extensively, including for my own interviews. That was how I did my semi-structured interviews, with printed out mind maps and I ticked things off as we went through.”

What tasks have you found Inspiration useful to help with?

“In the workplace, I’ve used it to plan an audit. So, before an audit you have to submit certain things before the auditors even visit, so I’d made a little plan in a flow chart style - because Inspiration gives you that option to have different layouts. So, I’ve got four weeks in advance to do this, two weeks in advance, one week, the day before and on the day. And I get that out a couple of months beforehand - I printed it out, stuck it by the desk, and ticked things off as I went along. So it all used to go quite smoothly on the day because I was so prepared. Obviously, it's a stressful time when you have an audit because you worry you have missed something. So again, making it visual was really, really helpful. Also complicated long documents - making my own summary of them. I know we now have quite a lot of tools that will do some of this for you now but if you want to really understand them, actually going through them and making your own choice about whether that's relevant to the reason why you're reading it is really helpful. And if you've got a short summary, maybe with a picture or some colour coding, that can help you when you need to go back to it - to write something up, or create a presentation for example.”

Do you have any final thoughts on Inspiration?

“It’s the first thing I’d ever come across that was actually in the workplace already that really made a big difference. It changed my working methods and helped me on my career. You know I would have struggled to have coped and learned how to do assessments and how to do all the rules and everything, if I hadn't have had a way to help me to cope with the volume of information. So in a way, the situation of having no structured training almost played to my strengths as a dyslexic person because I went off and found how to do it myself. It massively impacted how I ran the assessment centre and I became a manager, because I didn’t want anyone else to go through that if they didn't have to. So, I made my own kind of programme of things for people to go through step by step, explaining the DSA process.”