Scottish Business Minister to join line-up at event to make disability more visible in the workplace
The Minister for Business, Fair Work and Skills will be joining senior Scottish business leaders, artists and campaigners at a free conference in Edinburgh on Tuesday 11 December, aimed at improving openness in the workplace around disability.
Organised by Business Disability Forum in partnership with RBS, the conference will explore how to create an inclusive workplace that attracts and retains the best disabled talent, with many speakers sharing their own experiences of disability and the intrinsic role it plays in their identity.
Jamie Hepburn MSP will address the event alongside senior representatives from RBS, Network Rail, Inclusion Scotland, Binc and the University of Edinburgh.
Critically acclaimed Edinburgh Fringe comedian, Steve Day, will also be joining the line-up. Day will be performing excerpts from his fringe show, in which he uses music, songs and laughter to explore living with deafness and defying dementia.
Other speakers include Jeremy Balfour MSP, and Marsali Craig, a member of the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland will also address the event.
The conference will also play host to the internationally acclaimed Portrait Positive Project. Shot by world-renowned Scottish photographer and director Rankin (John Rankin Waddell), and conceived by Stephen Bell, the Portrait Positive Project seeks to challenge perceptions of beauty, through a striking series of images of women with visible facial and bodily differences. All the women are dressed in designs by Steven Tai.
Diane Lightfoot, Chief Executive Officer at Business Disability Forum, said: “This is set to be an exciting and, we hope, a much talked-about event. We really want to challenge people’s perceptions of disability and to encourage business leaders to see beyond the label to the person and the talent that lies behind it.”
The ‘Exploring Identity’ conference forms part of Business Disability Forum’s wider Identity campaign. The campaign seeks to encourage more people to speak out on how disability, which is often non-visible, affects them and help change public perceptions. As part of the campaign, Business Disability Forum has produced a series of podcast interviews in which disabled people working in a variety of roles talk about their identity in the workplace and the person behind the job title.
‘Exploring Identity’ will take place from 10am to 5pm on Tuesday 11 December, Royal Bank of Scotland, Conference Centre, Gogarburn, Edinburgh, EH12 9SB.
A limited number of tickets for this free event are still available. Admission is by ticket only.
For further information go to Business Disability Forum’s event webpages.
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