Gear, Gadgets and Gizmos

Phil Friend (OBE Ph.DFRSA) himself a wheelchair user, is acknowledged as the UK's foremost consultant on disability matters.

Gear, Gadgets and Gizmos

March 30, 2019

Hello everyone just a quick note to let you know that I’m planning to develop a new podcast in which I interview disabled people about the things they use to overcome the barriers they face because of their disability. I’ll keep you posted as to when this will become available.

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Disability at Work - A Different Approach

March 25, 2013

For nearly thirty years I, and many others have provided disability equality training designed for, and targeted at line managers, HR professionals and other interested individuals. Given that most people acquire their impairments during their adult lives an important emphasis has been placed on helping employers and managers become more confident when managing disability in the workplace. Looking back I can see that this approach has provided some positive benefits and the workplace is no longer quite so problematic for disabled employees. Sadly I also think that this strategy has failed to deliver on two really important levels. Firstly, the disabled employee has to rely on being part of an organisation that places real importance on equality policies and practices. Even when this is the case the disabled employee is often separated from the equality process and has to sit and wait while their manager gets trained or the organisation decides to treat disability as a higher priority.

Another Year Another Lock down.

January 13, 2021

To begin at the beginning, Happy New Year. How are you doing? Perhaps you're reading this standing in a long queue shopping for the last wet wipes, or maybe you've decided that everything's gone to pot and you're staying under your duvet with your smartphone. So Lockdown 3 is upon us but at least this time we are better prepared aren't we? We have plenty of toilet paper, PPE is everywhere, we are awash with hand sanitiser, and we can now personalise the logos on our face masks. Oh and galloping over the hill to rescue us comes the coronavirus vaccine. All great news, so why do you and I still feel dejected, hacked off and furious? Clearly, this pandemic was unexpected, and any government would have struggled to develop a coherent strategy for managing it. However, almost a year on, we still don't seem to have a plan other than relying on a vaccine with so many questions surrounding it: how long will it be effective, what happens if the virus mutates? What we

London Councils pose questions on welfare reform, Failure to treat Eddie Kidd attack as a hate crime, NHS backs GP comments on fitness to work, BBC failure on Humphrys documentary

August 11, 2013

I’ve just spent a very pleasant afternoon sitting out in the garden. My next door neighbour, who is a very keen gardener, recently “qualified” as a bee keeper and has a new bee hive. Since he acquired it and populated it with bees I’ve noticed that we seem to have a lot more of the little creatures flying around in our garden. A very welcome sight given the concerns about falling numbers of bees. Of course it might just be a coincidence or we simply acquired a lot of new neighbours. As I watched the bees working on our lavender plants I singled out one for closer scrutiny. He/she worked away on a number of flowers but never revisited one that had already been visited. How on earth does a bee work that out? The bee didn’t appear to think “did I do that flower properly? Perhaps I ‘d better just check”. He/she did it right first time and moved on! I think my brain is bigger than a bees but I find myself revisiting stuff all the time. If the computer starts misbehaving I keep trying t