Our guest on today’s podcast is Emily Yates who works for Mima, an inclusive creative design agency. She is a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy and in her job, she heads up the accessibility and inclusive design team for the company.

We talk to Emily about the changes that design can make to people’s lives, and how passionate she is about what she’s doing.

Her work focuses on physical, social and digital accessibility, and inclusive design for disabled people and those with other protected characteristics. This means that yes, inclusivity is important, but true inclusivity looks beyond a focus on disabled people, but also focuses on people with accessibility requirements. Those who may not consider themselves disabled, but parents with young children in prams, older adults who have issues which are just a part of getting older.

Emily tells about her involvement in supporting accessibility in the different countries involved with the Paralympics, which is fascinating to hear. After volunteering for the London 2012 Olympic Paralympic Games, she was then invited to Brazil where the 2016 Games were held. She was offered the opportunity to do some consultancy with Metro Rio who were looking to build a new line to the Olympic Park. We talk about the main differences between attitudes in Brazil and the UK when it comes to disability.

She also talks to us about the incredible work she has been involved in with Visit England. They are creating an inclusive tourism toolkit, specifically for small to medium sized tourism businesses, especially in the areas of accommodation, attractions, food and beverage and events. Emily explains the importance of this great tool, and how it will make it easier and more straightforward for small businesses to become inclusive. And unlike so much of the disparate information that is out there, this will be in one tool kit!

You can contact us at the following:
Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/
Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

The first guest on our podcast is Rory Cellan-Jones. Rory is a British journalist and former BBC News technology correspondent. He worked for the BBC for 40 years, and left in August 2021. He is also an author of many books, and since leaving the BBC has a newsletter which is very popular, and also runs a podcast called Movers and Shakers, which is about life with Parkinson’s.

During our conversation we talk to Rory about travel, both when growing up and then as an adult, and now in his late 60s. Not only has he enjoyed travel, but he also lived and worked in different parts of the world. He shares his favourite places with us.

Not surprisingly, when considering he was a technology correspondent, we talk about technology, but with a specific focus on inclusivity. Rory shares his thoughts on the latest technologies to aid people with disabilities, and ageing. He talks about how having information on a phone or on a screen that you can talk to is incredibly useful – especially when it means you don’t have to write things down. He also talks about instant translation, and how that can be helpful for people who are losing the power of their voice.

We also talk about the Parky Charter, which Rory’s podcast and several leading Parkinson organisations have called on the government to take action to improve the lives of people living with Parkinson’s. It’s about anybody with a disability to be able to gain access to entries and exits everywhere they go.

We also talk about the frustrations of even gaining access to diagnosis at the present time in the NHS.

On a positive note, Rory shares information about several great new ways that technology is being used and developed to help people with Parkinson's live better lives.

We even talk about the use of AI.

Rory sees technology helping in two main ways. One, to help diagnose Parkinson’s more quickly and easily, and two, developing different sorts of wearables that can measure symptoms and chart the rate of progress.

Perhaps his most important point is that many of us will end up with some kind of disability at some stage – just through age – so why not make the world a more inclusive place?

You can find out more about Rory at https://rorycellanjones.substack.com/p/a-test-for-parkinsons

Dr Carol Sargent can be found at https://sargentgroup.consulting/
Dr Tom Adler can be found at https://getbide.com/

Carol's passion is enabling and empowering the dementia community to find freedom and joy to live their best lives. Carol’s first career was as a PhD scientist, working in cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in the pharmaceutical industry in the USA and UK. This culminated in a scientific lead role for a novel drug, tested in clinical studies costing> $700 million. When her Mum and Mother-in-law were diagnosed with dementia she founded a dementia holiday organisation, MindforYou. They proved anybody living at home with dementia can holiday, and presented robust evidence of the health and well-being benefits for both the person diagnosed and their family supporter. In 2023 she founded Sargent Group Consulting to provide choice, identifying personalised solutions to overcome barriers preventing the dementia community from holidaying, and supporting travel businesses to become dementia inclusive.

With over 30 years of experience as a General Practitioner and with Postgraduate Diplomas in Law, and Sport and Exercise Medicine, Dr Tom Adler is passionate about improving the health and well-being of our ageing population, and those with chronic disease and disabilities. As the CEO and Co-Founder of Peak Medtek Ltd, he led a small team developing a falls prevention device Bide which aims to reduce the risk of nighttime falls in the frail and elderly by using voice cues. Dr Tom was also honoured to be selected as one of the five entrepreneurs on the 2019 RCGP Innovators Mentorship Programme.

Dr Carol Sargent can be found at https://sargentgroup.consulting/
Dr Tom Adler can be found at https://getbide.com/