Today marks the end of an incredibly important awareness week in our nation – National Inclusion Week. What is National Inclusion Week, and why is inclusion important? Read on to find out.
National Inclusion Week is an annual awareness week taking place in September that gives employers themes to use as a springboard of inspiration to make their spaces more inclusive. Each year they have a different theme, each centred around inclusion. This year’s theme was “Take Action, Make Impact” which means to take action on creating more inclusive spaces and see the incredible impact it has. They went for this message, as thinking about inclusion and planning is good, but you need to jump in and “take action” if you really want to “make impact”.
Now, I’ve used that word a lot, “Inclusion”, but what does it mean? Simply put, it means including people. Making sure everybody – their needs included – are thought about when doing or creating something. For example, if you work in an office with yourself and three other people and decide to go out for lunch, but only invite two of those three people, you would be excluding the third – leaving them out. To be inclusive in this context, you would need to invite all three people out. At its core, this is what inclusion means.
However, inclusion is more complex than simply asking someone or not. To be inclusive, you need to cater to everyone’s unique and individual needs without prejudice or any preconceptions. You need to talk to the people you want to include to find out their needs, difficulties and what you can do to make things easier for them. This isn’t something that comes as second nature to all, unfortunately, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t something you can learn to do.
Now that we know what inclusion is, why is it so important? beginning with the moral standpoint; people don’t like to be left out. If you were picked last in PE class, you know the feeling. Feeling as though you are unwanted or unimportant is really unpleasant and can lead to a lack of self-worth and self-confidence. This clearly isn’t something we want people to feel.
Moving onto the business angle; you could miss out on an incredible employee, friend or colleague if their needs aren’t met. You could have someone with fantastic creative vision, but if they’ve not been taught how to use photoshop or require certain adjustments that aren’t given, they won’t be able to realise that vision. Wasted potential.
So, that begs the question “How can I be more inclusive?”.
- Speak up – If you see someone being excluded or see how something might not be fully accessible, talk about it and bring it to the relevant person who can make change. This could be something as simple as mentioning your building isn’t wheelchair accessible.
- Listen – Find people who are being excluded and listen to what they have to say. This is great, as you may not be able to fully understand their experience, but if you can listen to them directly you’ll have a much better chance of doing so.
- Be Proactive – Don’t wait for an issue to appear, try to stop it before it happens. This just means keeping inclusion in the back of your mind, regardless of what you’re doing. Ask yourself “Is there anyone this might cause difficulties for?” and amend any mistakes before they become real issues.
- Stay up to date – Things are constantly changing and new ways of being inclusive are always appearing. Make sure to keep your finger on the pulse of all things inclusive and act accordingly.
There are many ways you can specifically be more inclusive, but the list of things to do is far to long to put in this blog. But please do continue your learning journey about inclusion – the more you know the better it’ll be for everyone!
If you have any questions about inclusion, feel free to ask us at info@defiantsports.org.uk or pop to our Inclusion Hub.
As always, stay defiant!