Inclusion Scotland, Scotland's leading organisation of disabled people, have set up their Real Inclusion Project to deliver disability equality and access awareness training to private and public sector bodies and voluntary organisations; conduct access audits; co-ordinate and facilitate events and focus groups and assist public sector bodies implement the Disability Equality Duty action plan .

Now that public bodies have written action plans to comply with the Disability Equality Duty, the question now is, how are they going to be effectively implemented?

We welcome these moves towards greater equality and engagement of disabled people in civic society and are able to assist organisations in the implementation of their action plans. With this in mind we have established our "Real Inclusion Project", (supported by Communities Scotland and the European Social Fund). This project is a 'not for profit' social enterprise.

Real Inclusion employs disabled people and works in both the public and private sector to increase awareness and promote the inclusion of disabled people in Scottish society.

To date we have worked with organisations such as:
Disability Rights Commission; Scottish Executive Equalities Unit; Strathclyde Police; Scottish Water;
Transport Scotland; Office of Scottish Charity Regulator; Offcom and various Access Panels etc.

This work has included: organising and facilitating training sessions and consultation meetings; giving guidance and advice; conducting audits; awareness raising etc.

Alison Wilson and Douglas Gilroy lead this innovative project. Alison co-ordinates Disability Equality Training, provides information on engaging with disabled people, explains what DED is to organisations and co-ordinates and facilitates events with public bodies to help them fulfill this duty.

Douglas conducts Access Audits of services and premises and facilitates training events to explain what access really is and the positive impact proper access can have on business and service providers alike.

We would welcome the opportunity to explore with organisations how we can assist them in implementing good practice, thereby enabling them to benefit from the expertise that disabled people possess. We would also like to work with disability organisations to help them engage more effectively with policy makers.

For more information, please contact Alison or Douglas on 0141 887 7165, email Alison at equalities@inclusionscotland.org or Douglas at access@inclusionscotland.org. Alternatively write to us at: Inclusion Scotland, 5a Sir James Clark Building, Abbey Mill Business Centre, PAISLEY, PA1 1TJ.