Working with Sinéad and Tilting the Lens enabled publicjobs, the central recruiter for the civil and public sector in Ireland, to adopt a co-design approach, challenging our thinking and our delivery of accessible recruitment. In a short space of time, Sinéad helped us to reframe the narrative around disability, and to deliver an action plan for sustainable change, promoting a more equitable recruitment experience for our candidates.
Policy services
Policy is a long-term commitment by an organisation to create system and cultural change. Our approach is rooted in collaboration, international and local best practice, and in creating the conditions for disabled people to be successful.
Why does policy matter?
Policy shapes behaviour. It sets expectations for who and what is valued. Often, policies are driven by regulation; what could be an instrument for culture change is merely a lever for compliance.
A policy should be more than a static, regulatory document. An accessibility statement on a website is a policy. It can communicate an organisation’s intention and strategic roadmap for accessibility. The information you share before an event is a policy. Providing a document with detailed information about the built environment, digital and sensory accessibility, is a statement of intent and invites those who may typically opt out.
At Tilting the Lens, we support organisations to audit, develop, and embed accessible policies. Policies are commitments to fair and consistent practices. Clear, inclusive policies, such as reasonable accommodations or disability-related leave, build the confidence that supports employees to self-identify as disabled, enhance the likelihood for employee retention, and increase brand sentiment as a welcoming, inclusive employer.
What is a policy project?
- Creating a reasonable accommodations policy that outlines how current and potential disabled employees can request adjustments, such as assistive technologies and flexible schedules.
- Embedding accessibility into product development, project management and communications.
- Devising an accessible content policy that spans language, marketing, brand guidelines and events.
- Developing a built environment policy that mandates more accessible real estate procurement.
- Amending policies to embed digital accessibility that moves beyond compliance into the workflows for developers and designers.
Our methodology for policy
Our process is bespoke and unique for each client. This ensures that the policy and process that we create is specific to the culture, values and behaviours of an organisation. However these are some consistent priority strands that we implement across projects.
1. Stakeholder engagement and research
Our approach begins by undertaking stakeholder engagement and research to understand the organisation’s current policy, process and positioning. By engaging with people at different levels and across departments, we learn how change takes shape. We develop more nuanced understandings of the current challenges, the barriers to change, the ways in which decisions are made, the culture and behaviours that are valued, and how those closest to the problems view the solutions.
2. Co-creation and collaboration
We partner and co-design with disabled communities. We operate within the framework of Disability Justice, recognising and valuing disabled people as the foremost experts in their own experiences and access needs. This ensures that policies reflect the realities of the people they are intended to support and do not just meet regulation and compliance.
We partner closely with leadership teams and employee networks to ensure policy development is a collaborative process. We bring best practice and deep expertise, but always adapt to the organisational structure, culture and context. This approach builds buy-in and ensures the resulting policies are not only inclusive, but actionable and accountable to your team.
3. Systems and iteration
We consider how a single policy interacts with broader system change. For example, a recruitment policy interacts with a promotion policy, both of which connect to the reasonable adjustment policy, which relies on resources and knowledge from leadership, finance and HR. Within policy design, we are intentional in our commitment to system change, and support partners to implement the policy today, but empower them to iterate and evolve the process as the knowledge, expertise and need grows.
4. Legacy Memory
Policies are not just the responsibility of one individual. Our process is deliberately designed to create legacy memory within an organisation. This means that we are specific and intentional that our recommendations can be embedded into workflows and build shared accountability. Meaning that if one key person leaves the organisation or is promoted, the impact and work is sustained and continues to evolve.
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Policy project case studies
Discover some of the policy projects we have worked on.
