Training

Overview

Line managers are both the main gateway to support and the most common point of failure.

Many managers want to help but lack practical tools. Training often builds confidence without building capability: how to have needs-led conversations, how to prioritise work differently, how to support fluctuating capacity without forcing disclosure.

Prof. Amanda Kirby

Training is often most effective when it is designed and delivered with meaningful input from people with lived experience. While this is not presently standard practice, its importance is increasingly being recognised.

For example, government recommended Oliver McGowan Training on Learning Disability and Autism requires the involvement of people with lived experience in its delivery for health and social care staff.

Potential training provisions can reviewed in advance by considering information about course content, facilitators and providers. Some organisations and individuals mentioned elsewhere on this site also offer training.

What to look for in training:

  • Go beyond awareness
    Move past definitions and characteristics into practical application and real-world scenarios
  • Include lived experience
    Be designed or delivered with meaningful input from people with lived experience
  • Focus on individual needs
    Emphasis understanding needs, preferences and context, rather than relying on labels or generalisations
  • Provide practical strategies
    Offer clear, realistic approaches that can be applied in everyday situations
  • Encourage reflection and discussion
    Create a space for course participants to explore assumptions, perspectives and different experiences
  • Support ongoing learning
    Recognise that learning does not end with a single session

Training that reflects these principles is more likely to support a shift from awareness to understanding, acceptance and action.

In addition to formal training, learning directly from people with lived experience can provide valuable insight. Where in-person opportunities are limited, this may include engaging with a range of perspectives through social media, podcasts, books and blogs. Exposure to diverse experiences can support a broader understanding of individual needs, challenges and strengths, and help build empathy and perspective.

The following are examples of online training that may be useful.

Neurodiversity and Disability

LinkedIn Learning

  • Supporting Workers with Disabilities
    The instructor, Liz Johnson, is a Paralympian and co-founder of The Ability People. This course is beginner friendly and covers differences between ‘disability’ and ‘disabled’, and preference of inclusion vs. over-reliance on adjustments. There is emphasis on what needs to be achieved, and allowing different approaches.
  • Inclusion and Equity for Workers with Disabilities
    Liz Johnson is the instructor of this course, and it’s slightly more advanced than her other course. This course discusses equity and inclusion, the concepts of voluntary disclosure vs. forced disclosure (where details must be shared for equity), and the role of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). This course states that ‘Invisible disabilities make up more than 70% of disabilities’.

Udemy

  • Supporting Neurodiversity in the Workforce – Good overall, delivered by someone with autism and ADHD, who speaks about her experiences in the workplace with differences in communication styles. Advice is provided on how to adapt to working with neurodivergent people, and encouraging feedback from them.
  • Understanding Neurodiversity In The Workplace – Whilst this doesn’t appear to be designed or delivered by someone with lived experience, I found this one of the better training options available on the Udemy platform which is often a preferred provider of workplaces. Although the title specifies ‘Neurodiversity’, the content was more weighted towards autism and ADHD. The course provided practical advice on support and adjustments.

Accessibility

Microsoft

Accessibility Fundamentals provides an introduction to disability, accessibility and assistive technology which can help support a variety of disabilities and impairments.

Dyslexia

Made by Dyslexia

Website: Made By Dyslexia

Providers of:

Reference