Inclusion Scotland shows that disabled people can do so much more with Microsoft

“Microsoft technology makes sure that disabled people do not feel they’re a burden,” says Raj Jeyaraj, Head of Operations at Inclusion Scotland.

Inclusion Scotland is an organisation that is run by disabled people for disabled people. It is founded on the social model of disability: that we are disabled by the barriers we face rather than our impairments themselves. Using the social model, Inclusion Scotland works to achieve positive changes to policy and practice, so that disabled people are fully included throughout all Scottish society as equal citizens.

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Technology has a key role to play in inclusion

Technology has a key role to play in social inclusion. That’s why Inclusion Scotland chooses to provide its staff with Microsoft Surface devices.

Inclusion Scotland staff appreciate the lightweight form factor and the long battery life of Microsoft Surface devices such as Surface Book and Surface Go. “The Surface is great because you can transport it around with you wherever you need to go,” says Philip Heritage-Vivers, Business Development Worker at Inclusion Scotland. “I’m a really big user of a lot of the ease of access software. I have a visual impairment and I’m quite sensitive to sudden bright lights. I use a high-contrast mouse. I enlarge the size of it because I can often lose track of my mouse on a screen – especially when I have two screens. It just helps me to do my work more efficiently.”

The tight integration with other Microsoft tools such as Office 365 is also highly valued by the team. Raj Jeyaraj says, “All the Microsoft tools automatically work with the Microsoft Surface. I use Microsoft Teams to manage my team. It allows people who traditionally wouldn’t have that ability to collaborate to work from home – now they can.”

Learning from Inclusion Scotland’s example

“When we moved to remote working, a lot of disabled people already had that experience because they couldn’t access office spaces,” explains Philip Heritage-Vivers.

Throughout the pandemic, the team shared this first-hand knowledge with the partners and the employers with which they work.

“We found ourselves in a position where we were helping our employers not only to support their interns but, actually, to support everyone to be more efficient and more effective.”

Creating a working environment where everyone can thrive

The experience of sharing lived experience to make all businesses more inclusive and successful is something that the Inclusion Scotland team is keen to build upon.

“I’ve really benefitted from my colleagues showing me dictate on Microsoft Word. I have my screen set to dark mode so that I don’t get the glare off the screen,” states Lois Ratcliffe, Project Manager and Inclusive Employment Policy at Inclusion Scotland. “The future that I would like to see is that we fully utilise this great technology and don’t just put it in a box ‘for disabled people’. If we put it in a box ‘for everybody’, then you get a much more inclusive organisation.”