Disabled people: Let’s End the Awkward campaign

Have your staff ever felt ‘awkward’ around a disabled person? In their embarrassment, do they end up not knowing what to say or do? Did you know that a new TV advertising campaign launched this month by British disability charity Scope aims to ‘end the awkward’?

In a survey of 2,000 British adults, Scope found that two out of three people feel uncomfortable talking to disabled people. The main reason for this is the fear of coming across as patronising or saying the wrong thing.

Richard Hawkes, chief executive of Scope, said: ‘People aren’t sure how to talk to disabled people. They’re uneasy about what they can and can’t say in case they accidentally cause offence. Avoiding someone because they are disabled contributes to that person feeling excluded from everyday life.’

A number of adverts accompany the TV advertising campaign , for example an employer trying to work out how to shake hands with a job applicant who is a right arm amputee. This scenario is a familiar one to TV presenter Alex Brooker, who appears in all three adverts. Brooker, co-host of Channel 4 chat show The Last Leg, was born with hand and arm disabilities and wears a prosthetic leg.

‘I don’t think people are awkward because they don’t care or because they’re ignorant – it’s completely the opposite,’ he said. ‘People can become quite awkward because they do care and they don’t want to make someone feel conscious about themselves. And that creates an awkwardness.’

Brooker says he understands why some people are a little flustered when they meet him for the first time. ‘They go to shake your hand and they look at me and they think, “What do I do here?” But I don’t agree with making people feel bad about being awkward. It’s how you react afterwards that’s the most important thing.

To read more about the campaign and see the adverts, click here