East Midlands Chamber of Commerce
Tania Gerard provides East Midlands Chamber of Commerce Members an exclusive workshop.
I was invited to deliver a 60-minute virtual workshop to members of the East Midlands Chamber of Commerce, a diverse audience spanning healthcare, education, engineering, creative industries, retail, public sector and more.
The session, titled “Accessible Marketing for HR Professionals: Inclusive Communication for Recruitment and Retention,” was designed to help HR teams apply accessibility principles to everything from job adverts to internal onboarding.
What made this especially exciting was the range of companies in attendance, organisations like Chesterfield Royal Hospital, Cambridge & Counties Bank, Nottingham Trent University, Everards, Rural Action Derbyshire, Futures Housing Group, and Sainsbury’s partners, each with different challenges, priorities, and influence across their HR and comms processes.
Workshop Objectives
By the end of the session, participants would:
Understand the foundations of accessible marketing within HR and people-focused communications
Identify common exclusion barriers in job descriptions, hiring processes, and onboarding
Learn WCAG 2.2-aligned strategies for improving digital and written content
Recognise legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010
Explore real-world case studies from UK organisations already implementing inclusive practices
What We Covered
The workshop included a blend of educational insight, sector-specific guidance, and interactive reflection. Each section included practical fixes that participants could implement right away, without needing a complete overhaul of their systems.
Highlights included:
📂 Clear Structure and Headings
Explaining how proper use of headings (H1, H2, H3) supports both neurodivergent candidates and screen reader navigation (WCAG 1.3.1)
🧠 Neurodivergent-Friendly Language
Avoiding jargon and phrases like “strong communicator” in favour of clear, functional descriptions
📄 Accessible Job Ads
Using bullets, consistent formatting, sans serif fonts, and contrast ratios of 4.5:1 or above (WCAG 1.4.3)
Including accessibility statements with contact options for adjustments
📹 Inclusive Multimedia
Adding captions and transcripts to onboarding or training videos (WCAG 1.2.2)
🧩 Legal & Ethical Framing
Clarifying the duty to provide reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 and how accessible comms reduce the need for reactive fixes
Polls & Participation
To ensure engagement, we ran live polls throughout the session:
“How confident are you that your recruitment content is accessible?”
“What’s the biggest barrier to accessibility in your organisation?”
“What would help you make lasting changes after this session?”
These revealed common themes: many teams want to be more inclusive but don’t know where to start, don’t have templates, or worry about legal risk. The session gave them confidence, clarity, and next steps.
Sector-Relevant Examples
Rather than generic advice, I brought in examples relevant to the industries in the (virtual) room, including:
NHS Digital – using the NHS Design System to ensure accessibility by design
Barclays – applying inclusive design principles in financial services
University of Southampton – conducting accessibility audits and staff training
Sainsbury’s – collaborating with accessibility consultants and testing with disabled customers
These grounded the session in real UK success stories.
Free Resource:
“10 Ways to Make Your Job Ads More Accessible”
As part of the session, I also created a downloadable PDF guide aligned with WCAG 2.2 and the Equality Act offering plain English tips, practical examples, and legal context to help teams improve their recruitment content immediately. This became a valuable takeaway for attendees and opened up follow-up opportunities across HR and marketing teams.
Impact & Next Steps
Feedback from attendees has been incredibly positive with follow-up interest in:
Bespoke training for internal comms and recruitment teams
Review of job ads, onboarding materials, and accessibility statements
Collaborations on Disability Confident action planning
This workshop reinforced the message that accessibility is not just a compliance box to tick—it’s a way to build trust, attract talent, and create an environment where people feel safe to show up fully.
Interested in running a similar session?
Whether you're a business network, HR leader, or internal comms team—I’d love to support you in building accessible, inclusive strategies that work for your team and your people.
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Let’s keep building a world where inclusion is the standard, not the exception.