RNIB collaborated with Havas Play to make the company more accessible.

• Who: Havas Play
• What: RNIB facilitated a training session on how to work with partially sighted staff.
• How: Session on different stages of sight loss and do's and don'ts.
• Result: Havas Play staff learned about ways of working that they hadn’t necessarily considered prior.

This is a new area of collaboration for RNIB, helping to make the media sector more accessible. Havas Play works with clients across the entertainment, sports and technology sector to connect brands to their customers, through delivering integrated campaigns. Douglas Pratt, a Senior Account Executive from Havas Play, was keen to understand how to make the company more accessible so reached out to RNIB. Douglas has a visual impairment himself, Stargardt disease, so wanted to help Havas Play better understand how being partially sighted affects someone in the workplace.

Dave Williams, Inclusive Design Ambassador at RNIB, facilitated the training session at the Havas Play office on how to work with partially sighted staff and explained how they can better prepare for the workplace. During the session he gave a presentation on the different stages of sight loss and do's and don'ts. The second half was more interactive, showing people how to guide someone who is blind.

Changing behaviour and ways of working

During the session staff learned about ways of working, that they hadn’t necessarily considered prior. For example, in a meeting where someone’s giving a presentation, it's not always going to be easy for people to see the content if they’re sharing their screen.

Dave explained that it would be a good idea for them to send the presentation around ahead of the meeting, that someone who has a visual impairment can then load the presentation up on their own computer or device, then read it through it in their own the way to process the information. It’s also a good idea to make sure the text is large and bold enough.