Ability Focus has been Ireland’s leading provider of disability awareness training for over 4 years and during this period it’s been great to see more organisations consider disability awareness training as a key first step in creating disability inclusive workspaces.
Through our award-winning disability awareness training programmes and our on-site training workshops Ability Focus have brought greater awareness of Ireland’s most diverse group to thousands of colleagues across Irish workplaces.
We are proud to have a client list of many of the best known and most reputable organisations operating out of Ireland including An Post, Central Statistics Office, Bank of Ireland, UCD, Johnson & Johnson, Bord Bia, Vodafone, Dept of Social Protection and many more.
As 2023 progressed we continued our service offering, delivering a wide range of disability awareness programmes to local authorities, law firms, tech companies and the hospitality sector.
In October we completed delivery of both onsite and online disability awareness training to participants from another local authority we are proud to have partnered with – Westmeath County Council. This training initiative started in May and finished in early October with the Ability Focus team delivering over 10 disability awareness training programmes to the Senior Leadership Team, general colleagues and participants from various community groups.
Programmes ranged from 2-hour Live Online Disability Awareness Training Programmes which were delivered to hugely engaged colleagues from across the council. We also delivered a number of 3-hour Live Online Disability Awareness Training Programmes for the Senior Leadership Team which focused more heavily on reasonable accommodation and disability legislation to include The Disability Act 2005, Employment Equality Act and Equal Status Acts. We also delivered on-site training programmes which were a full day in duration and placed a great emphasis on universal design and creating greater access for people with disabilities.
Feedback from training participants through our anonymous feedback forms was continually excellent and it was also great to get some positive feedback from Virginia Goldsberry, Training Officer from the HR Department at Westmeath County Council who was instrumental in organizing this training initiative for the council:
“We here in Westmeath County Council delivered Disability Awareness Training with Ability Focus who played a pivotal role in delivering this training to our Staff and Community groups. This training gave an understanding and awareness around the core aspects of disability related issues.
Both Stephen and Nadia were very professional and informative and have a huge knowledge in this area. This training which was delivered has given us a greater insight and confidence when engaging with people with disabilities in both their personal and professional lives in the future.”
It is always great to get such positive feedback from a large training initiative such as this. From our perspective, it was truly enjoyable to work with an organisation who places such a genuine interest in creating a workplace which is striving to be a genuinely disability inclusive employer.
We look forward to working with Westmeath County Council again in the future and would like to wish this disability inclusive local authority the very best of luck with all future endeavours.
If you are considering Disability Awareness Training for your organisation, please get in touch with Ability Focus by calling (01) 699 1150 or email info@abilityfocus.ie and we will be happy to discuss a customised programme to suit your disability training needs.
Ability Focus is the leading provider of disability awareness training in Ireland. Our award-winning training programmes are CPD accredited, L&DI Endorsed and delivered by qualified trainers with over eighteen years’ experience working in disability inclusion.