SIA’s Disability Discrimination Act Master Class

Regular readers of e-clips & forward will know of the development over the last year of SIA’s Your Voice self advocacy courses. Here Jonathan Fogerty, one of the SIA Your Voice course trainers tells us about his Your Voice experiences and the new SIA Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) Master Class.

“I was interested in becoming a Your Voice course trainer because I could see the real importance of learning the information we give out on the course and there was nothing like this available when I was newly injured. The course has the potential to make a real difference to the way attendees handle themselves and perhaps more importantly their relationships and negotiations with others.

The last year has seen SIA not only develop the Your Voice course but actually deliver it to over 100 attendees at five of the Spinal Cord Injuries Centres around the country. The programme will be offered to a further three Centres in the next year.

It has been really interesting to watch the self advocacy course develop from a concept to a set of slides to a booklet to a group of inpatients, outpatients and families sat in a room waiting to become assertive, self advocates! As trainers, we welcome real, personal contributions from those attending and by discussing actual situations it somehow brings the course material to life.

On day two of the Your Voice course, we learn about the DDA, what the Act says and the impact it has had on the day to day lives of people with a disability in the UK. There is much to discuss and in the time we have available, we cannot teach everything there is to know.

I am pleased to report therefore that the SIA is developing a DDA Master Class which will be delivered at SIA House, and will enable course attendees to spend a full day learning more about the models of disability and how the development of these has influenced the DDA legislation. We will be able to discuss the provisions and the impact of the DDA in much more detail than we can on the Your Voice course. We will also look at the process of taking a DDA claim to court, what needs to be done to achieve success and how not to be intimidated by taking on the big boys!

For those who feel they have a basic knowledge of the DDA, but are interested to know more, I think the DDA Master Class is for you. I look forward to meeting you at SIA House.”

Jonathan Fogerty

Places on the first DDA Master Class, to be held at SIA House on Weds 28th April 2010, can be booked through Maureen Hampson at the SIA office on 0845 678 6633 or at m.hampson@spinal.co.uk

The DDA Master Class will also be held in July and November 2010 and in March 2011. For more information please go to http://www.spinal.co.uk/page/master-class