Involving disabled people

ODI supports government departments to involve and engage with disabled people and their organisations

There are many ways of involving disabled people. You can read more about all levels of involvement in ODI’s guide to Involving Disabled People. Download the guide to learn about involvement techniques and see what other organisations have done.

Involving disabled people: an introduction (PDF, 28 pages, 1.6 MB)

Consultation

Consultation is a limited relationship with your stakeholders or customers. It may involve asking organisations to comment on your work or publishing a consultation document. ODI recommends going further than consultation as it is limited to a one way input.

Involvement

To understand disabled people’s perspective and priorities you need to work with them. Disabled people are experts in their own lives and can tell you how your services or policy affect them.

Co-production

The best way to involve disabled people is to work with them as partners. This is called co-production. It means ensuring disabled people are involved at all levels, including the strategic, when you are producing your policies or delivering services.

Co-production helps you understands your customers’ needs at the outset. Getting disabled people's views and advice on policy initiatives helps identify problems and find solutions - saving time and money.

Equality 2025

ODI works with Equality 2025, a group of 10 disabled people set up to advise Ministers and civil servants on strategic issues that impact on the lives of disabled people.

ODI can facilitate contact with Equality 2025. Email ODI with a brief description of your query.

Disability Equality Duty

The creation of disability equality schemes require involvement of disabled people. ODI can help ensure your organisation meets legal requirements under the Disability Equality Duty. Find out more on DED schemes.

If you are interested in finding out more or can provide examples of when involvement has been done well, then please contact ODI.

Download Documents

You can download documents marked with a Adobe Acrobat PDF Logo

using Adobe Reader - available free of charge.

You can download documents marked with a Microsoft Word Logo

using Microsoft Word viewer – available free of charge.