November 12, 2023 • 22 mins
Prepare to be inspired as we sit down with Claire Buckle, an extraordinary woman who’s turned her struggles against discrimination into a positive force. A former GB Para-athlete and now an award-winning business owner, Claire shares the gripping tale of her journey, marked by her triumphant resolve against cerebral palsy and the harsh realities of bullying. She sheds light on her childhood, her love for sports and how she navigated through a male-dominated environment to an all-girls school, thus offering a unique perspective on the world she grew up in.
Today, she’s advocating for change through her workshops that address discrimination and her disability awareness app. Listen in as she passionately talks about her mission to inspire more young people to engage in sports and how her innovation won her the prestigious Inclusive Innovation Award.
Listen to Learn:
🎙️Claire's journey from para-athlete to entrepreneur
🎙️The power of resilience, determination, and self-belief
🎙️The importance of inclusivity and how we can contribute
🎙️How sport can be more inclusive
Listen here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1981646
#NPWPodcast #ListenNow #Podcast #WeArePower
Find out more about We Are PoWEr here. 💫
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
The Northern Power Women podcast for your career
and your life, no matter whatbusiness you're in.
Welcome to the Northern PowerWomen podcast, where we
spotlight the absolutelyremarkable and inspiring
individuals who use their powerfor good in the aim of reaching
a more equal and diverse world,and this week it is I'm.
I'm looking forward to this onebecause I'm chatting to the
(00:41):
wonderful Claire Buckle, who wonthe 2023 inclusive innovation
award at the Northern PowerWomen Awards back in March with
Ability Consultancy, which isher consultancy.
But Claire Claire's got such astory.
She's a former GB Parathleteand a current award winning
business owner.
Claire, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you very much.
Hi.
(01:02):
Hello there.
Well, we were chatting justbefore we went.
We press play, or press record,and so you grew up in
Merseyside, didn't you?
I thought it was Lancashire,but it was Merseyside and you
grew up with cerebral palsy.
Tell me about your school life,because you had two different
journeys, didn't you?
In school?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah.
So I have to be honest, growingup as a disabled person in
mainstream schools is, at thattime, was really hard and it was
kind of unheard of.
So I was always in the firstand the only disabled student in
(01:41):
like any of my schools.
So I experienced bullying, Iexperienced discrimination.
It probably helped that I keptactually moving schools as well.
(02:01):
And then my secondary school.
I started off in a small privateschool that only accepted girls
, probably five or six years andbefore I started so I had a
year group of 15 of us and 13were boys and there was actually
(02:27):
me and this other girl whoclassed completely.
We just didn't like each otherand so I hung around with the
boys quite a lot and I actuallythink that's actually where my
love of cars, football, anythingsporty, came in, because I just
(02:48):
hung around with them and wespoke about football and we
spoke about like all of all oflike the formula one, like every
one day was this big discussionand this other girl hated it
and just was not and she hatedit, no, and she made that time
of actually my life very, veryhard, but it's it was hard and
(03:15):
it was a challenging time, but Ithink it's made me here I am
today and if I haven'texperienced the level of
bullying that I had then, Iwouldn't have actually been able
(03:37):
to stand up and say, actuallyit's wrong, because it was quite
intense every day.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
So you went from this boys environment with a mean
girl there and then you wentinto an all-girl place.
What was that like?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I went into a year group of 96 girls and, yeah, it
was a bit of a challenge.
So I turned up in trainers andhad short hair and I was quite
boyish looking and I was justlike and I just hated it because
(04:15):
everyone was concerned aboutlike having smart shoes, having
makeup, having long hair, doingthe hair nicely, and I was like
I have short hair and I weartrainers and I don't really care
what I look like and I just,here is me and this is what I do
, and and I just couldn'tunderstand the concept that I
didn't want to be like them andI just and it wasn't interested.
(04:39):
You know, I was and I was moreinterested in trying to play
football, which was at that timenot and allowed in school
because it isn't a girls sportat that age.
So I was stopped from playingfootball.
I was stopped doing everythingthat I liked and nobody knew
(05:01):
about football.
So my Mondays would just startwith the radio on in my ears
trying to block out everythingabout makeup and films and
nights out that they'd all hadand I was like just not
interested.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
And also block out you being new.
And how do you think the worldhas improved for individuals
with disabilities since thoseschool days?
Because they were just twototally completely different
experiences from the, the morethe male environment with the
footy in there to then into yourmakeup suppose what feels like
a mean girls kind of environment.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, but I have to be honest, out of that school, I
have ended up with, I would say, two or three and amazing
friends that have stayed with methe whole way through.
One is actually a director inthe business as well.
(06:09):
So for her, you know it's, it'sit's.
You know I have, I have a 23year relationship with her and
it's just amazing and we speakall time and that's really good.
So it has to work out actuallythat way.
But, yeah, I think schools noware very different.
So the instead of having thebox of if you are and if you are
(06:37):
disabled, you have to be in aspecial school, that's gone out
of and window.
There is so much more supportin schools.
So I I had no help in school.
What's, however, everyone nowand they have the education and
health care plans I didn't haveone of those and everyone get
(07:02):
that extra, extra support thatthey really need and it's just
open the door to like and it'sand it really helps because
because actually now allyoungsters say somebody and
disabled in their school andthat is really really key and it
(07:25):
just puts and shows on theworld that we have a place and
we are capable and able toachieve, if given and the right
environment.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
And let's, let's fast forward now to 2020, 2012,
shall I say to the, to theLondon Olympics and Paralympics.
And I worked for LondonOlympics, or before the Olympics
actually.
So I worked for Low Cog.
It was a dream for me to go andwork for the Olympics, but
there's a real shift.
Wasn't there in that?
And remember that during thewhole preparation, it was really
(08:08):
aligning the Olympics and theParalympics.
It was one game.
It wasn't like the, the afterfour games.
It was built with the samepassion, with the same sort of
real focus and highlighting howmuch do you think that that real
shift of Paralympics shiftedthis whole view of?
Speaker 2 (08:29):
disability.
It's changed it completely.
So London 2012 was the firsttime ever that Paralympic
athletes had full, full stages,that that actually we were
treated the same.
We have this.
Everybody had the sameexperiences as their Olympic
(08:53):
athletes.
I think it's and it has openedup everybody's eyes about that
actually, that because I wasalways I I remember that
actually, when I first startedathletics someone saying I was
just having a go and it was andit and it's like she wasn't very
(09:20):
serious, and that completelychanged in 2012.
And I think we are seen or theathletes now were seen as proper
athletes in a way, and it waswhich they always were and and
(09:43):
they should have always actuallybeen but that that mindset in
society has actually changed.
And they train.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
They train so much harder than like any other
people because they have to workharder and you represented Team
GB in the in the shop put andwe you talked earlier about your
love of sport when you were inthe boys school or it wasn't a
boys school.
When you were in there with theboys it was a full boys school.
But where was that?
(10:14):
Where did you suddenlytransition from that love of
football and Formula One and allthat would that?
Where was that moment where youlike, actually I'm going to go
for this, I'm going to representmy country in the Paralympics.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
It kind of happened quite quickly and quite
unexpectedly.
So I used to trampoline andthen I watched my coach have an
accident and then somebody justsaid and he was a special needs
(10:49):
teacher in a school and Iactually said, do you want to
try athletics?
And I would try any sport, Iwould do any sport.
I was one of these that wasoutside in the rain playing on
my own, playing football,netball, whatever.
So I said yes, let's just havea go.
(11:10):
And within a month of startingI was national record holder and
it kind of just snowballed fromthere.
Nobody expected it and I I likeit's never expected it, but it
(11:31):
was just something that I hadfound and I started to really
love and then, like our sessionevery week turned into two hour
session, which then was, whichactually then was three days
(11:52):
every week, which then was likefour days a week, then was every
day of the week, and it justsnowballed from there.
I think I've got sport in myblood because my granddad
represented Scotland at rubberunion so he played, for he
(12:14):
played this Scotland in the 1945Calcutta Cup and my uncle also
played Scotland as your rubberunion.
So it's in the blood, it's inour family and I think that's
where any sport that I will try,any sport for some fun.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
It made me laugh.
A few weeks ago you were on oneof our webinars and you were
leaving that webinar to go inzip wire and one of your
training sessions.
So you're definitely thatyou're an all-in-girl, aren't
you?
So we talked about these sortof different chapters, if you
like.
So the next chapter where didentrepreneurship come from?
Where did you suddenly decideI'm going to go off and become
(13:01):
an entrepreneur, I'm going toset up a multi-award winning
business.
How did that happen?
Speaker 2 (13:07):
So I was unfortunately made and redundant
in 2017 and, as a disabledperson, it's really hard to find
a job, so it so it averages outthat you, that you are five
times it's it's five times hardto get a job and I was made, I'm
(13:34):
made, I'm made, I'm made andredundant out of and the job
that I absolutely loved and andsomebody called Jane Stewart,
who I will always be gratefulfor, said take out and the
middleman and and set up on, setup on your own.
(13:55):
Because I had, I had, I had sixmonths of interviews.
I had I applied for like 40 oddjobs.
I had interviews for over three, three quarters of in them, and
constantly, and the answer wasno.
(14:15):
And the answer was very clearlywas because I didn't fit in and
and how.
Everyone said just just go it onyour own.
I had no business experience, Ididn't have a clue what I was
(14:37):
doing and I just was like inwhat?
That was my first question.
It's like I'm gonna set up onmy own business doing what?
And that was her, and she saidyou can do this, you can do that
, you can do the other and itand it just flowed.
So I, so I initially set up agood a tea consultancy to try
(15:05):
and to try and actually makesure that sports clubs were
accessible and inclusive, andthe more that I dug into that
and the more it became a parent,it's a much wider issue.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
So so sport still plays a part, but, but but it's
actually trying to change thewider society and you run
workshops don't knew that or ledby individuals with
disabilities, and are allfocused on how discrimination is
inherently built in society.
(15:48):
Give me some examples of thoseworkshops that you do.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
So we have our favourite edge of one is just a
generic disability and awarenessand it's just explaining
everything and about the certaincommunities and it answers
(16:12):
those questions that everyone isreally scared to ask, because
everybody wants to ask thequestion but is like actually
really scared to do it.
And we use real life examples.
So all of our deliverers usereal life discrimination and
(16:37):
examples.
So I have a little bank of themand I just use odd little ones
just to show how I wasdiscriminated about.
But how then I turn thatactually around to try and
educate somebody.
And it's just, you know, andhearing it in a real life story
(17:08):
is much more powerful thanactually reading about it.
No, that's what all of us tryto do.
We have courses in equality anddiversity, we have courses in
inclusive sports, because that'swhat I know and that's what I
love.
But then we are also looking athow employers and businesses
(17:39):
can help people with individualimpairments.
So like hammering the processof trying to look at disability
overall in the workplace andthen somebody who has cerebral
(18:06):
causey as you water thosethoughts you can do, or little
hints and tricks you can helpsomeone as she makes something
so much easier, and then we'regoing to look at visual and
hearing impairment and that'syour mental health as well and
neurodiversity, because it'shuge and employers tick the
(18:34):
boxes but they don't always askthe questions they are.
So a disabled person has to goand say I'm struggling with this
, whereas the employer would begood if they were like okay, ask
(18:55):
them straight out, what can wedo to help you?
Speaker 1 (19:01):
actually, before an issue happens really, and that's
what you talk about it's beyondjust ticking a box.
So many organisations will tickboxes, but that's the aim,
isn't it?
That people go above and beyond.
And I know you've also foundthe ability digital limited as
well, because obviously you knownothing else to do out there,
(19:21):
claire, to be honest.
But this is all about creatingthis disability awareness app,
and I know that you, as well asa human, are always open to the
fact that you have a sack fullof ideas for the future, claire.
What is next for you and howmuch of it's going to involve
sport?
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Quite, I think, sports up there.
I'm going to have to be honest.
So, in terms of and the app, weare looking to add three more
impairments in the app.
So currently non-and disabledpeople can experience and learn
(20:04):
and learn about visual, hearingand physical impairment, and we
want to add mental health, neurodiversity and learning in
impairment into that.
We are also looking at how tomake it more interactive and
(20:25):
more immersive using immersivetechnologies.
So it's so somebody will have areal, virtual and reality
experience of an impairment andthat is the app.
(20:46):
And then I've got some sportylittle bits on the side that I'm
looking at doing, which isunder wraps, because it's going
to be new, it's going to beexciting and we just want to get
more young people and involvedin sport, because sport is a
(21:08):
driver for changing somebody'slife, and if I can offer a
sporting opportunity to somebodythat has an impairment, then
that's great and I have done myjob Well you know, what.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Well, we will keep.
Well, I believe you're a womanthat will never have done her
job, because there's alwaysgoing to be something in that
sack full of ideas.
Claire, I can see how happy andhow you light up when you talk
about this new development, soplease do keep us involved.
This is why you won theInclusive Innovation Award this
year.
It's clear that everything thatyou're doing has that extra
(21:46):
mile in it.
So you can find out more aboutClaire and the Ability
Consultancy.
We'll put it in the show notesas well.
Claire, thank you so much forbeing continually awesome and
joining us on today's podcast.
Thank you very much.
Thank you and thank all of youfor listening.
Please do find out more.
Check out Claire.
She is an absolute force ofnature and an incredible role
model, and every week, I'mdelighted to talk to amazing
(22:09):
individuals who are fantasticrole models driving change.
And remember, every week wehave somebody new that you can
listen to.
So please subscribe so youdon't miss an episode.
You will be able to uncover allof the stories behind the
Northern Powering Awards, andremember, they are not just for
one night.
If you would like to join us onour mission of professional
personal development, pleasesign up to our digital hub.
(22:30):
We are powernet.
We can find out more aboutthese brilliant role models and
do join all our socials at NorthPower Women on Twitter and
Northern Power Women on all ofthe other.
Thank you so much for joining.
My name is Simone.
This is the Northern PowerWomen podcast.
In what goes on mediaproduction.
The Northern Power Women podcast for your career
and your life, no matter whatbusiness you're in.
Welcome to the Northern PowerWomen podcast, where we
spotlight the absolutelyremarkable and inspiring
individuals who use their powerfor good in the aim of reaching
a more equal and diverse world,and this week it is I'm.
I'm looking forward to this onebecause I'm chatting to the
(00:41):
wonderful Claire Buckle, who wonthe 2023 inclusive innovation
award at the Northern PowerWomen Awards back in March with
Ability Consultancy, which isher consultancy.
But Claire Claire's got such astory.
She's a former GB Parathleteand a current award winning
business owner.
Claire, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you very much.
Hi.
(01:02):
Hello there.
Well, we were chatting justbefore we went.
We press play, or press record,and so you grew up in
Merseyside, didn't you?
I thought it was Lancashire,but it was Merseyside and you
grew up with cerebral palsy.
Tell me about your school life,because you had two different
journeys, didn't you?
In school?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah.
So I have to be honest, growingup as a disabled person in
mainstream schools is, at thattime, was really hard and it was
kind of unheard of.
So I was always in the firstand the only disabled student in
(01:41):
like any of my schools.
So I experienced bullying, Iexperienced discrimination.
It probably helped that I keptactually moving schools as well.
(02:01):
And then my secondary school.
I started off in a small privateschool that only accepted girls
, probably five or six years andbefore I started so I had a
year group of 15 of us and 13were boys and there was actually
(02:27):
me and this other girl whoclassed completely.
We just didn't like each otherand so I hung around with the
boys quite a lot and I actuallythink that's actually where my
love of cars, football, anythingsporty, came in, because I just
(02:48):
hung around with them and wespoke about football and we
spoke about like all of all oflike the formula one, like every
one day was this big discussionand this other girl hated it
and just was not and she hatedit, no, and she made that time
of actually my life very, veryhard, but it's it was hard and
(03:15):
it was a challenging time, but Ithink it's made me here I am
today and if I haven'texperienced the level of
bullying that I had then, Iwouldn't have actually been able
(03:37):
to stand up and say, actuallyit's wrong, because it was quite
intense every day.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
So you went from this boys environment with a mean
girl there and then you wentinto an all-girl place.
What was that like?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I went into a year group of 96 girls and, yeah, it
was a bit of a challenge.
So I turned up in trainers andhad short hair and I was quite
boyish looking and I was justlike and I just hated it because
(04:15):
everyone was concerned aboutlike having smart shoes, having
makeup, having long hair, doingthe hair nicely, and I was like
I have short hair and I weartrainers and I don't really care
what I look like and I just,here is me and this is what I do
, and and I just couldn'tunderstand the concept that I
didn't want to be like them andI just and it wasn't interested.
(04:39):
You know, I was and I was moreinterested in trying to play
football, which was at that timenot and allowed in school
because it isn't a girls sportat that age.
So I was stopped from playingfootball.
I was stopped doing everythingthat I liked and nobody knew
(05:01):
about football.
So my Mondays would just startwith the radio on in my ears
trying to block out everythingabout makeup and films and
nights out that they'd all hadand I was like just not
interested.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
And also block out you being new.
And how do you think the worldhas improved for individuals
with disabilities since thoseschool days?
Because they were just twototally completely different
experiences from the, the morethe male environment with the
footy in there to then into yourmakeup suppose what feels like
a mean girls kind of environment.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, but I have to be honest, out of that school, I
have ended up with, I would say, two or three and amazing
friends that have stayed with methe whole way through.
One is actually a director inthe business as well.
(06:09):
So for her, you know it's, it'sit's.
You know I have, I have a 23year relationship with her and
it's just amazing and we speakall time and that's really good.
So it has to work out actuallythat way.
But, yeah, I think schools noware very different.
So the instead of having thebox of if you are and if you are
(06:37):
disabled, you have to be in aspecial school, that's gone out
of and window.
There is so much more supportin schools.
So I I had no help in school.
What's, however, everyone nowand they have the education and
health care plans I didn't haveone of those and everyone get
(07:02):
that extra, extra support thatthey really need and it's just
open the door to like and it'sand it really helps because
because actually now allyoungsters say somebody and
disabled in their school andthat is really really key and it
(07:25):
just puts and shows on theworld that we have a place and
we are capable and able toachieve, if given and the right
environment.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
And let's, let's fast forward now to 2020, 2012,
shall I say to the, to theLondon Olympics and Paralympics.
And I worked for LondonOlympics, or before the Olympics
actually.
So I worked for Low Cog.
It was a dream for me to go andwork for the Olympics, but
there's a real shift.
Wasn't there in that?
And remember that during thewhole preparation, it was really
(08:08):
aligning the Olympics and theParalympics.
It was one game.
It wasn't like the, the afterfour games.
It was built with the samepassion, with the same sort of
real focus and highlighting howmuch do you think that that real
shift of Paralympics shiftedthis whole view of?
Speaker 2 (08:29):
disability.
It's changed it completely.
So London 2012 was the firsttime ever that Paralympic
athletes had full, full stages,that that actually we were
treated the same.
We have this.
Everybody had the sameexperiences as their Olympic
(08:53):
athletes.
I think it's and it has openedup everybody's eyes about that
actually, that because I wasalways I I remember that
actually, when I first startedathletics someone saying I was
just having a go and it was andit and it's like she wasn't very
(09:20):
serious, and that completelychanged in 2012.
And I think we are seen or theathletes now were seen as proper
athletes in a way, and it waswhich they always were and and
(09:43):
they should have always actuallybeen but that that mindset in
society has actually changed.
And they train.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
They train so much harder than like any other
people because they have to workharder and you represented Team
GB in the in the shop put andwe you talked earlier about your
love of sport when you were inthe boys school or it wasn't a
boys school.
When you were in there with theboys it was a full boys school.
But where was that?
(10:14):
Where did you suddenlytransition from that love of
football and Formula One and allthat would that?
Where was that moment where youlike, actually I'm going to go
for this, I'm going to representmy country in the Paralympics.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
It kind of happened quite quickly and quite
unexpectedly.
So I used to trampoline andthen I watched my coach have an
accident and then somebody justsaid and he was a special needs
(10:49):
teacher in a school and Iactually said, do you want to
try athletics?
And I would try any sport, Iwould do any sport.
I was one of these that wasoutside in the rain playing on
my own, playing football,netball, whatever.
So I said yes, let's just havea go.
(11:10):
And within a month of startingI was national record holder and
it kind of just snowballed fromthere.
Nobody expected it and I I likeit's never expected it, but it
(11:31):
was just something that I hadfound and I started to really
love and then, like our sessionevery week turned into two hour
session, which then was, whichactually then was three days
(11:52):
every week, which then was likefour days a week, then was every
day of the week, and it justsnowballed from there.
I think I've got sport in myblood because my granddad
represented Scotland at rubberunion so he played, for he
(12:14):
played this Scotland in the 1945Calcutta Cup and my uncle also
played Scotland as your rubberunion.
So it's in the blood, it's inour family and I think that's
where any sport that I will try,any sport for some fun.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
It made me laugh.
A few weeks ago you were on oneof our webinars and you were
leaving that webinar to go inzip wire and one of your
training sessions.
So you're definitely thatyou're an all-in-girl, aren't
you?
So we talked about these sortof different chapters, if you
like.
So the next chapter where didentrepreneurship come from?
Where did you suddenly decideI'm going to go off and become
(13:01):
an entrepreneur, I'm going toset up a multi-award winning
business.
How did that happen?
Speaker 2 (13:07):
So I was unfortunately made and redundant
in 2017 and, as a disabledperson, it's really hard to find
a job, so it so it averages outthat you, that you are five
times it's it's five times hardto get a job and I was made, I'm
(13:34):
made, I'm made, I'm made andredundant out of and the job
that I absolutely loved and andsomebody called Jane Stewart,
who I will always be gratefulfor, said take out and the
middleman and and set up on, setup on your own.
(13:55):
Because I had, I had, I had sixmonths of interviews.
I had I applied for like 40 oddjobs.
I had interviews for over three, three quarters of in them, and
constantly, and the answer wasno.
(14:15):
And the answer was very clearlywas because I didn't fit in and
and how.
Everyone said just just go it onyour own.
I had no business experience, Ididn't have a clue what I was
(14:37):
doing and I just was like inwhat?
That was my first question.
It's like I'm gonna set up onmy own business doing what?
And that was her, and she saidyou can do this, you can do that
, you can do the other and itand it just flowed.
So I, so I initially set up agood a tea consultancy to try
(15:05):
and to try and actually makesure that sports clubs were
accessible and inclusive, andthe more that I dug into that
and the more it became a parent,it's a much wider issue.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
So so sport still plays a part, but, but but it's
actually trying to change thewider society and you run
workshops don't knew that or ledby individuals with
disabilities, and are allfocused on how discrimination is
inherently built in society.
(15:48):
Give me some examples of thoseworkshops that you do.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
So we have our favourite edge of one is just a
generic disability and awarenessand it's just explaining
everything and about the certaincommunities and it answers
(16:12):
those questions that everyone isreally scared to ask, because
everybody wants to ask thequestion but is like actually
really scared to do it.
And we use real life examples.
So all of our deliverers usereal life discrimination and
(16:37):
examples.
So I have a little bank of themand I just use odd little ones
just to show how I wasdiscriminated about.
But how then I turn thatactually around to try and
educate somebody.
And it's just, you know, andhearing it in a real life story
(17:08):
is much more powerful thanactually reading about it.
No, that's what all of us tryto do.
We have courses in equality anddiversity, we have courses in
inclusive sports, because that'swhat I know and that's what I
love.
But then we are also looking athow employers and businesses
(17:39):
can help people with individualimpairments.
So like hammering the processof trying to look at disability
overall in the workplace andthen somebody who has cerebral
(18:06):
causey as you water thosethoughts you can do, or little
hints and tricks you can helpsomeone as she makes something
so much easier, and then we'regoing to look at visual and
hearing impairment and that'syour mental health as well and
neurodiversity, because it'shuge and employers tick the
(18:34):
boxes but they don't always askthe questions they are.
So a disabled person has to goand say I'm struggling with this
, whereas the employer would begood if they were like okay, ask
(18:55):
them straight out, what can wedo to help you?
Speaker 1 (19:01):
actually, before an issue happens really, and that's
what you talk about it's beyondjust ticking a box.
So many organisations will tickboxes, but that's the aim,
isn't it?
That people go above and beyond.
And I know you've also foundthe ability digital limited as
well, because obviously you knownothing else to do out there,
(19:21):
claire, to be honest.
But this is all about creatingthis disability awareness app,
and I know that you, as well asa human, are always open to the
fact that you have a sack fullof ideas for the future, claire.
What is next for you and howmuch of it's going to involve
sport?
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Quite, I think, sports up there.
I'm going to have to be honest.
So, in terms of and the app, weare looking to add three more
impairments in the app.
So currently non-and disabledpeople can experience and learn
(20:04):
and learn about visual, hearingand physical impairment, and we
want to add mental health, neurodiversity and learning in
impairment into that.
We are also looking at how tomake it more interactive and
(20:25):
more immersive using immersivetechnologies.
So it's so somebody will have areal, virtual and reality
experience of an impairment andthat is the app.
(20:46):
And then I've got some sportylittle bits on the side that I'm
looking at doing, which isunder wraps, because it's going
to be new, it's going to beexciting and we just want to get
more young people and involvedin sport, because sport is a
(21:08):
driver for changing somebody'slife, and if I can offer a
sporting opportunity to somebodythat has an impairment, then
that's great and I have done myjob Well you know, what.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Well, we will keep.
Well, I believe you're a womanthat will never have done her
job, because there's alwaysgoing to be something in that
sack full of ideas.
Claire, I can see how happy andhow you light up when you talk
about this new development, soplease do keep us involved.
This is why you won theInclusive Innovation Award this
year.
It's clear that everything thatyou're doing has that extra
(21:46):
mile in it.
So you can find out more aboutClaire and the Ability
Consultancy.
We'll put it in the show notesas well.
Claire, thank you so much forbeing continually awesome and
joining us on today's podcast.
Thank you very much.
Thank you and thank all of youfor listening.
Please do find out more.
Check out Claire.
She is an absolute force ofnature and an incredible role
model, and every week, I'mdelighted to talk to amazing
(22:09):
individuals who are fantasticrole models driving change.
And remember, every week wehave somebody new that you can
listen to.
So please subscribe so youdon't miss an episode.
You will be able to uncover allof the stories behind the
Northern Powering Awards, andremember, they are not just for
one night.
If you would like to join us onour mission of professional
personal development, pleasesign up to our digital hub.
(22:30):
We are powernet.
We can find out more aboutthese brilliant role models and
do join all our socials at NorthPower Women on Twitter and
Northern Power Women on all ofthe other.
Thank you so much for joining.
My name is Simone.
This is the Northern PowerWomen podcast.
In what goes on mediaproduction.
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