Access and Inclusion at True

1 in every 5 Queenslanders has a disability (2015 Queensland Government).

During COVID, many of them were already well adapted to online and virtual solutions that enable their lifestyle, however many service industries found themselves ill-prepared. At True, we relied heavily on delivering face-to-face education and clinical services. We too had to quickly adapt to phone, virtual and online modes of delivery throughout 2020 so that we could continue to provide critical education and services to our community.

The Looking After Me Program is one such educational service that provides relationships and sexuality education (RSE) to individuals of any age who have a disability. Often people with a disability do not receive adequate education in relationships and sexuality education making them more vulnerable to abuse and harm. The Looking After Me Program is traditionally delivered as face-to-face sessions, our educators quickly had to recreate the program for online delivery while still ensuring that our clients received the same level of education, understanding and engagement as a face-to-face session.

Using collaborative technologies such as Zoom and creating new interactive activities hosted online, our educators were able to meet the immediate needs of their clients and also increase their reach to more people located in regional and rural areas which otherwise may not have been able to receive this critical education. Today True has almost doubled the demand for this program due to the quality of education received and the growing demand and awareness of the importance of RSE for all people of all abilities.

In advance of May 20th, Global Accessibility Awareness Day I wanted to share True’s story of transformation when thinking about access and inclusion in physical and digital spaces.

To know more about our Looking After Me Program visit our LAMP page.

Article by General Manager - Stakeholder Engagement at True Relationships & Reproductive Health, Monique Belousoff on LinkedIn - https://buff.ly/2STKZVz