Accessibility 

As an organisation run by disabled people, we understand the barriers to accessing content, events and services. We are a small start-up, currently with limited means so if you do come across accessibility barriers while interacting with us and/ or accessing our site, please inform us. We are really open to working with our community to make SIC the most accessible and inclusive it can be, and we are open and completely understand that there will always be things we can work on. You can reach us at hello@sicofficial.co.uk or fill out any of the contact forms on our website. We will endeavour to reply to you within 2 working days

We have installed ‘Userway’ on our website in the bottom right hand corner. You will see the blue icon with a white stick figure in the middle. By clicking on this you can access a number of different accessibility features.

Our Commitment

SIC is committed to being as accessible as possible on our website, in our online events and throughout our work experience programmes. We are a social enterprise run by disabled people, for disabled people. Experiencing inaccessible and ableist environments all around us, we know how important it is to find a space where you know you’re welcome.

Work Experience

All our work experience programmes are 100% online, and can be worked at any time of day. We have various teaching methods to ensure that every style of learning can be catered for, and always start with what individual trainees require from their learning experience. All communication can be done via. zoom with closed captions, phone-calls or through written communication via our slack channel or email, if access requires a specific platform.

Events

Our monthly career clinic and quarterly Think Tank event will remain 100% online, through zoom. Closed captions are turned on and available for all of our events. No requirement is made to speak or have the video on during the calls, and if this is the case any communication through the chat box is read out and treated with the same consideration as someone speaking. 

Meeting minutes are taken throughout the event and circulated afterwards to provide attendees with a summary of the main topics discussed and links to resources mentioned. This is done to provide attendees with the assurance they can participate fully in the event without needing to take notes, or if they are unable to attend in person on the day, they can read what was discussed. None of our events are recorded, to provide anonymity to encourage discussion that may otherwise be uncomfortable.

Communication

All communication with the SIC team can be done via email, zoom or phone- please let us know which you need if you contact us via our forms or through our social media. After every conversation via phone or zoom, we will send our summary notes of the call if asked for, to ensure that our take-aways from the conversation were correct and start a ‘paper’ trail of our communications if not done over email. This is to make sure you can re-visit any of the conversations in your own time, and so we all know we are understood.

Free resources

All our free resources are created using Adobe, and presented as a pdf. (or excel sheets in some cases). A text-only version is available. These are accessible to accessible assistant technology, including a screen reader- we will ensure that all our guides and workbooks are formatted in a way that there are no columns of text that are unreadable and skip. If you do find that a product you have bought from us is inaccessible, please contact us at hello@sicofficial.co.uk and we will work to resolve this (and update the product in the shop for others).

We have priced our products so they cover the cost of creating them, so they are as cheap as we can provide them as we understand that having access to this education can be vital. If you are financially unable to afford the guides and workbooks in our shop, please email us at hello@sicofficial.co.uk and we can support you with heavily discounted or free products. (This applies to digital products only.)

Website

We are a new, self funded start-up with a mission, and with that comes the in-built limitation of accessibility on things such as our website. We look forward to being able to develop our own accessible website in the future! In the meantime, We have integrated our site with user way to allow for integrated accessibility support, however we are also aware this service doesn’t always work well, or cover everything— here are some of our other recommendations for accessibility tools that you can use on the website. 

Screen Readers

  • NVDA - Screen reader - The best free screen reader on the market, works with all of the website but may have some problems reading over links in texts.

  • Google - Screen Reader - Another option, if having some problems downloading NVDA, works with the majority of the website. 

Change The Font

Change The Colour

  • Chrome filter to change colour of website - Midnight lizard is very intuitive and easy to use software that allows any changes to the colour of scheme to website to increase readability

  • Colour enhancer - simplified and with less options the midnight lizard, still a useful option for those who are colour blind or need different colours.

Employees

We are a remote company. Some of our team works from a co-working space in Leamington Spa on a part-time basis, which is completely optional. Internal communication takes place on slack, including messaging, document sharing and video calls. We work flexible hours, with no core hours. The only expectation of set hours will be our once a month monthly team meetings, and if your role requires you to be online for set times a day- all of which would be decided in collaboration with the individual employee. We have an optional monthly survey where you can share your thoughts with us and any feedback. 

Freelancers

Due to the fact that more disabled people find freelance work more accessible, we endeavour to work with disabled freelancers as much as possible. We are keen to provide flexibility on deadlines and work closely with freelancers to produce high-quality work. For extended projects, freelancers are invited to work with us from our company communication platform on slack, as well as our company meetings and socials to allow for team building, understanding of the bigger mission and faster response times from all parties involved. We also understand the importance of prompt payment and always look to pay invoices no later than a week after they have been received.