Staff Training

Everyone in your institution should understand the importance of disability inclusion for the purposes of legal compliance and as part of the organization’s core values. This is why training is important. Keep these goals in mind when planning:

• Wide incorporation of training: Staff training should be integrated into all levels of an organization, from front-line staff to leadership, and should also include volunteers, interns and work-study students if applicable.
• Deep understanding of the content: Training and education opportunities for staff throughout the organization should share a fundamental understanding of disability, legal requirements and the goals of those requirements, as well as the institution’s commitment to accessibility and inclusion.

Staff training should cover a range of topics, including:

• Disability history, culture, rights and justice
• Inclusive language and communication
• Understanding and confronting ableism
• Legal requirements and responsibilities
• Best practices to ensure effective communication, reasonable accommodations, and services
• Organizational policies, procedures, and protocols relating to accessibility (internal and external)
• Systems within the organization that help maintain accessibility and inclusion through staff changes and reorganization

When you design and deliver your training, prioritize the voices and perspectives of people with disabilities. You can do this through considering the following:

• Include disabled people throughout the process: Design your training with input from disabled individuals, and also ensure that disabled people are active in leading and facilitating the sessions. When people with disabilities are involved in both the creation and delivery of the training, it bridges the gap between theoretical knowledge and the lived experience of disability, making the training more relevant, effective, and impactful. This approach highlights the unique expertise that disabled individuals bring to the table.
• Include different people from across your organization: Voices included in the training (and/or design of the training) should include staff from key departments, volunteers, and community. This ensures that the training is embedded within your existing organizational mindset, thus attaining a deeper layer of authenticity.
• Emphasize the inherent diversity of disability: It is always important to remember that one individual does not represent all disabilities, as well as to include varied people and perspectives throughout your training.

It is vital to ensure that your training materials are accessible. Some overall tips include:

• Provide standard accessibility measures for your training: These include captions for videos, transcripts for spoken content, and audio and image descriptions where necessary. Also provide other alternative formats that ensure that all staff can access the training equally.
• Provide multiple means of participation: These include live and recorded sessions, interactive participation, lectures, written/digital materials, etc. Do this whenever possible.
• Follow Universal Design for Learning principles: These allow for more effective training for diverse learners’ needs and preferences.

Tailoring training to the specific needs and structure of your institution helps your staff to respond to specific accessibility needs more effectively. Keep these tips in mind:

• Context matters: Ensure that your training is tailored to the specific context of the institution, and incorporate real details and experiences to help make training most relevant. For example, while both description and touch tours can play a role in both museums and theaters, these institutions may differ in key ways, including how these accessibility services function in each space, which staff members receive training, and what exactly that training looks like.
• Reference training materials in documents and handbooks: For ongoing reference and day-to-day support, include relevant accessibility/disability information covered in training as part of any organizational guidelines or manuals. For example, if there is a handbook for  ushers, include information about accessible seating, assistive listening device information, sighted guide instructions and so forth.

In order for learning to create change, it must be applied. Think about encouraging practical applications in these broader ways:

• Emphasize collaborative opportunities: Create opportunities that encourage collaboration by staff from across the organization for practical application of what was learned during training.
• Bring in existing work: Training should also have opportunities for staff to bring context-specific questions, existing work, projects, or other “case studies” to apply their tools or learning.

Staff training should not be a one-time event. Keep these thoughts in mind:

• Access requires continuous learning and reflection: This is especially true as new technologies and social changes emerge. Continuous learning can include regular refreshers, incorporating feedback from disabled patrons, conducting user/expert visits or focus groups, and staying updated on best practices.
• Continuous learning is key to inclusivity: Also remember that an inclusive organization is one that continuously educates its team, ensuring that they remain responsive and adaptive to the needs of disabled people.

When developing access trainings, it is important to avoid practices like disability simulations, which, despite intentions to build empathy, can be counterproductive and reinforce negative or inaccurate stereotypes. Disability is a nuanced and complex identity and lived experience that cannot be captured through temporary exercises such as navigating a wheelchair or completing tasks blindfolded. These simulations provide, at best, an incomplete understanding and often evoke pity rather than genuine insight, ultimately undermining the goals of equity, inclusion, and accessibility.