Celebrating Disability delivered a talk for the employees and police officers to enable them to create inclusive practices when interviewing disabled members of the public.

Towards the end of 2023, Celebrating Disability delivered an interactive webinar to Surrey Police as part of their Disability History Month plans. The goal was to destigmatise the taboo around talking about disability and tap into what disabled people may need from their local police. Attendees were engaged, asked questions, and reported that they found the session ‘useful’. Surrey Police were very pleased, and stated that this is only the beginning of the work they plan to do to encourage conversation and action for disability awareness and equity.

The Background

Surrey Police is the local force for the county in the South East of England. It covers a population of 1.1 million people, and since 24% of the UK population has a disability, it is crucial that the needs of disabled people are taken into consideration in their work. That’s why Surrey Police reached out to Celebrating Disability to organise a webinar to present to their team.

“There’s a lot of learning to be had, which is why I got in touch,” said Mamta Nokes, detective-turned-inclusion-officer for the EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) sector of Surrey Police. “I wanted to use that [detective] work to make the police more inclusive and engage with different people.”

Mamta also mentioned that her team were building a portfolio for Disability History Month, which takes place from the 16th November to the 16th December each year, and wanted to focus on “educating, learning about people, how we should talk about disability, and what disabled people want from us.” She acknowledged that people are often very scared of saying “the wrong thing” and that people are far too busy to sit and read a book, for example, about these issues, so wanted the session to be as engaging and visual as possible.

Our Successful Proposal

Mamta wanted to prioritise accessibility to the webinar, so ideally wanted the session to be åformatted around their lunch hour, when most people would be free. This concept is based on bringing in external speakers during breaks for staff to have enrichment time and keep current on real-world issues. She expressed how busy staff are, and how hard it is to find the right information. 

“We always go ‘I need to read that, I need to read that,’ but we don’t actually have the time to sit,” Mamta said.

With this in mind, Celebrating Disability pitched a one hour ‘Link & Learn’ webinar hosted by founder and Managing Director Esi Hardy, split into three areas:

• Preconceptions around disability
• Barriers disabled people face
• Anticipatory adjustments

 Surrey Police trusted Celebrating Disability with researching and creating an interactive talk to deliver to employees, and Mamta commented how ‘brilliant’ and ‘prepared’ the slides were.

Celebrating Disability provides a diverse range of disability awareness activities, including the ‘Link & Learn’, which is specially formulated to break down big discussions into bite-size training sessions, delivered over a smaller timescale, such as a lunch break. It’s a great way to get people talking and learning about disability without having to commit to a full training program, which is what suited Surrey Police’s busy schedules the best.

Supporting the Disability Community Talk

The talk took place virtually over Mentimeter, an interactive presentation software which allows for participants to anonymously answer questions and vote on polls. That way, we could ask in real time what preconceptions people had about disability without singling anyone out. In fact, it served as a way to bring everyone together and be honest about not having knowledge on certain topics. For example, it’s a common saying that not all disabilities are visible, but did you know that up to 80% of disabilities are invisible? This was one of the multiple-choice questions asked to the group, which really opened some eyes as to how disability can present itself in everyday life.

The software used also allowed us to download the slides to send to the client for internal company use afterwards, as well as for our use to look back at how people responded. The call was also recorded, so that staff members who could not participate during the Lunch and Learn could do so in their own time, which Mamta informed me that several did.

During the webinar, there was an ‘empowered’ atmosphere, according to Mamta. She specified that being able to see the slides beforehand made it clear that her team had chosen the right people to deliver this talk. The blend of experience of disability – both lived and professional – really added to the passion that was behind the words. People are usually so scared of talking about disability that they usually try to say nothing at all, she stressed, but in the webinar, these barriers were stripped away, everyone was made equal, and it was okay to be wrong or uneducated, because the whole point of the session was to learn and understand a group of people better that perhaps they were unfamiliar with. Everyone was open and willing to learn, which made a world of difference in the atmosphere.

“[Celebrating Disability] really made it relevant to what we wanted.”

Impact and Reflection

Following the session, many participants reached out to ask further questions.

There were a couple of questions asked on the day and Esi followed up by responding to them afterwards.

This further demonstrates how both the subject matter and the way it was delivered impacted the audience.

Next Steps

When asked how Surrey Police will continue their efforts towards inclusivity, Mamta responded that, “this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

“We need to do a lot more work on this… And it just shows you how much we do have to learn and… really get people learning and talking about disability.”

As a neurodivergent person who often finds it hard to mask* under stress, I have been scared of the police for as long as I can remember. I was always worried that I wouldn’t be able to act the way they needed or wanted me to, or that I’d act in a way that they found suspicious (not making eye contact, being blunt, fidgeting, etc.). Therefore, I’ve tried to steer clear as much as I possibly can from any interaction with the police, even when it probably would have been beneficial for me. Sometimes, when you’re disabled, you can’t help but feel alone in situations where you need assistance, or someone to stand up for you.

Needless to say, seeing the work that Surrey Police are making to talk about disability and train to become better for the disabled people in their area is reassuring. As Mamta said, this is just the tip of the iceberg, but it’s a good step in the right direction.

*Masking: to hide or disguise parts of oneself in order to better fit in with those around you (via www.autism.org.uk). In most contexts, masking is used to seem more neurotypical.