Interactive & Enlightening Trainings & Workshops

“Watch Your Mouth: What NOT to Say to a Disabled Person (And the Things You Can)”

Disability, language, and communication are incredibly important to the disability community. We convey narratives and reveal aspects of how we view disability by how our words are framed. With LaVant Consulting’s “Watch Your Mouth” training, we will dive into the importance of the words we use, theoretical models of disability behind our communication, with practical/relatable application and audience participation via introducing collective access principles online. Gear up for an engaging 90 minutes that will elevate your collaboration within the vast disability community, and take deeper steps to “speak disability with confidence.”

Disability as both a construct and experience has historically been presented as a “white person’s experience,” but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Studies show that 1/4 people have a disability, with representation in every ethnic and racial group. In other words, where there’s conversation about race, there’s conversation about disability. This workshop will explore disability as an intersectional oppression by digging into why we should consider ableism a social justice issue. We’ll also review present-day examples of racism, ableism, and other forms of oppression; provide insight into the erasure of race within historical disability narratives; and explore the disability justice principles that can guide authentic inclusive experiences that center race and disability.

Disability is everywhere in our communities, including within the workplace. From entry-level staff to management to executive leadership, disabled representation exists throughout organizations. Yet, often job applicants and employees with disabilities choose not to disclose or have negative workplace experiences because of societal stigma, fear or lack of general disability awareness within their workplaces. Research continually proves that as organizations aim to cultivate cultures of belonging that consider the needs and perspectives of people with disabilities, in turn disabled employees increase overall productivity, company morale, and so much more. In this engaging training, LaVant Consulting will introduce you to everyday origins and influences of disability bias, eliminating bias hiring language, the importance of including BIPOC disabled perspectives in hiring, common stereotypes with self-tests, offering accommodations in job interviews, disability & self-ID, and much more.

The training may include supplemental readings and resources that participants can use to take what they’ve learned with practical hiring practices to welcome disabled candidates with confidence.

“Beyond the Ramp: Collective Access & True Markings of An Accessible Workplace”

In this interactive training, we’ll explore accessibility, the underpinnings of inacessible spaces,and fostering community. Then, we will introduce the disability justice principle of collective access and how this can be applied to your workplace and community-building spaces. We will do this by providing guidance on concrete ways you can make your workplace culture more inclusive of people with disabilities, from personal attitudes to professional policies. Starting with simple tips for humanizing your employees and finishing with office-wide structural change, this workshop will give you the tools you need to create a disability inclusive work culture. Participants will engage with presenters through “fireside chats” and designated Q&A portions.

This training, led by LaVant Consulting (LCI) will help participants develop a collective-access approach to accommodations for a virtual platform. LCI and attendees will navigate needed structures together to incorporate ASL interpretation, CART captioning, access breaks, access check-ins and other accommodations for meetings and workshops. Additionally, we will identify ways to incorporate requesting accommodations on registration forms for events and provide sample language. Attendees will leave this training with tools, strategies and resources to begin incorporating access in all virtual spaces.

Physical accessibility in events for a goal of universal access can encompass a wide range of setup, communication, spacing, and visual accommodations, integration, and adaptation. In this training with Lavant Consulting (LCI), participants will learn about how to create inclusive physical events and experiences that explore creating inclusive programming, paths of travel, access points at entrances/exit, attendee accessibility coordination, on-site supports, listening devices and interpreters, booking accessible venues, and more.

How do we ensure that strategy and management around online events is compliant with digital accessibility standards? This training with LaVant Consulting (LCI) will outline four best practices to ensure an accessible social media presence and the “why” behind each. We will also discuss the accessibility features of Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook and give guidance on how to use each of these. Participants will have an opportunity to practice what they learned from the previous training session, including writing image descriptions and alt-text for social media.

Disability justice, disability rights: what’s the difference? Disability justice is an emerging framework beginning to gain traction in online disability and social justice-oriented communities. This training will dig into the origins of disability justice, add historical context, and introduce the 10 key principles of disability justice. It will also build a helpful timeline to understand its emergence, reveal connections to artistic expression and political education, and clarify the differences between disability rights and disability justice. Come join us!