Long Covid & The Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010, as most readers of this article will already know well is an Act of Parliament passed in the United Kingdom during the time of Gordon Brown’s leadership with the primary purpose of consolidating, updating, and supplementing the numerous prior Acts and Regulations, that formed the basis of anti-discrimination law in mostly England, Scotland, and Wales, relating more specifically at those people with disability and/or religious, moral, or ethnic background. An Act to ensure that none of these so-called ‘conditions’ would initiate a negative impact upon the past, present, or future opportunities for employment prospects. Ensuring that everyone wanting to gain work could do so, without fear of the narrow-minded attitudes adopted by some employers used for the screening of job applications. A report carried out by the London School of Economics discovered that:

Disabled people are six times less likely to get work and almost twice as likely to lose their jobs within a year, than non-disabled people.

That 1 in 3 people having a disability with medical-related conditions would be out of their job within a year of starting it.

More than 1 in 8 people of working age are disabled or have a debilitating medical condition.

The Equality Act 2010 does however hold some exceptions that allow the right of employers and/or organizations to refuse some disabled people access to that specified employment. For example, time-sensitive document creation from assessment

One example of this is Independent Assessment Services (IAS) delivered by Atos Healthcare. The very same company is contracted with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to carry out assessments on the disabled needs of people and how their daily lives are left affected by the condition within the community at large. Notably, the DWP’s principal aims are to ‘promote opportunity and independence for all.’ It delivers support and advice through a modern network of services to people of working age, employers, pensioners, families, and children, and disabled people.

To be eligible for this position, I was informed by email from IAS that – ‘…it is really important that your typing is up to speed. If you really feel you will struggle with talking/typing, you might want to delay your application and get some practice in although I appreciate that the audio typing test is quite hard…’

Yet within the subtext of the job description for the role, it states that you must complete a ‘timed clinical scenario looking at your ability to critically analyze completed on a laptop using Microsoft Word.’

And that you are, ‘IT literate, competent with MS Office, Word and Excel skills.’

Nowhere within this does it state anything about the essential need to type at a minimum of 30 words per minute (WPM.)

After having been a qualified and competent Registered Mental Nurse since mid-1992, the effects of contracting Covid-19 (and I must add) whilst I was on-duty in a mental health establishment, following admissions from the Isle of Wight, have led me to a point where leaving work on ill-health grounds means that I am no longer physically able to carry out the daily exhausting tasks needed to run a busy ward environment, resulting from exhaustion and poor mobility. In the many years as a mental health nurse, I am well versed in digital skills to include Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, and OneNote. Due to the complexity involved of persons needing admissions for a variety of mental ill-health challenges, preparing, typing, and presenting either face-to-face (or throughout UK lockdown protocols, these being carried out via protected video conferencing) 1-monthly, 2-monthly, 3-monthly, and 6-monthly reports notably multi-disciplinary (MDT), hospital manager hearings (HMH), first-tier tribunal (FTT), and care program approach (CPA) meeting reports, I have been required to complete reports for each patient on my caseload (typically)

A report carried out by Online Typing.Org in May 2020, (age group 24 – 47) discovered that back-office workers demonstrated average typing speeds of:

37% could type between 20-30 WPM.

28.7% could type between 30 – 40 WPM.

11.8% could type over 50 WPM

These statistics being carried out showing that their accuracy rating was 93.8%. Accuracy being based upon grammatical errors. Thereby showing that additional time would then be needed to further correct these mistakes prior to them being deemed ‘acceptable’ and ‘presentable’ for disclosure.

Returning to the IAS application procedure, the typical day of a disability analyst would be carried out over 7.5 hours. The requirement to see 4 persons going through the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) application process, and then writing up an assessment report for each person seen totaling 4 reports. As a full-time nurse, in direct contrast to this, I would typically be carrying out 4-5 fully typed reports (see page 1) attend meetings and administer 3 full medication rounds over a 12-hour shift; whilst ensuring that junior staff was fulfilling their assigned duties on the ward also. There are two common forms of typing abilities described below to contrast effects. For example,

Typing Faster is Better – Except When it is Not! Imagine going to see a performance by the World’s Fastest Pianist. He sits down at the piano, flexes his fingers, and starts to play the fastest song in the world. The audience is stunned by how fast his fingers fly across the keyboard… except for the fact that every few notes are missed.

Does speed matter when typing? It is great to be fast, but speed only matters if it’s partnered with grammatical accuracy. Typing accurately makes a difference. Therefore, accuracy should take precedence.

Comical ‘hunt and peck’ style (2 fingers) typing versus Touch Typing (all finger use.) The first method is more dependent on the user typing the letters by viewing the screen and then typing the corresponding letters, tedious and some would say time-consuming, but my experience of having coordination problems and having been a nurse since 1992, this has been my own way… and one which has proven to provide effective & timely, typed report presentations; approved and signed off by clinical consultant psychiatrists I have worked alongside. In contrast to this method is touch typing (seen above) whereby placing all your fingers over the home keys provides the reference point to type, without the need to look away from the words on the dictation sheet, screen, or the person who is telling about themselves. Although as Online Typing.Org suggests, accuracy needs to be based on the level of first-time typing without grammatical errors – that later take up more time in proofreading and editing reports.

Across show six key skills in the use of active listening. Of course, there will always be support towards show that touch typing provides easier use of observing body posture and maintaining eye contact whereas, it may be argued that the hunt & peck style may reduce these key skills of active listening. Despite the varied adaptations in either typing styles, should you consider the Equality Act 2010 in respect of employing people with disability (in this instance coordination arresting your ability to touch type) and in, direct consideration to other more IT savvy mediums, attempt to standardize assessment periods with clients by dictation or video/audio recordings? (Although it must be understood that these latter methods need the requirement for involved parties to agree & consent to this.) This up-to-date technique is not only in accordance with how nursing has progressed with future IT movements (a major example being the old written Kardex system of writing notes, care plans, and formulating ward stays) but of how PC-based software has digitalized this time-consuming activity. With dictation or video/audio recordings in place, it would improve upon the disability assessor’s well-spent time of activity with the client with the ability to actually… actively listen.

Until such a time as this will take place, there must be changes seen to be adopted in the way Disability Assessment Services (such as IAS) powered by Atos Healthcare screen applicants. The DWP aims to get people into employment irrespective of disability and support them. I cannot see how ‘exceptions to the Equality Act 2010’ include employers being enabled to act discriminatively to applicants with poor typing speeds. After all, IAS is there to support disabled people with their PIP claims. But in the same breath, they are a private company and reject applicants because of their own disabilities. Until such times show positive change, I will continue to practice the skills learned through University training into Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (Train the Trainer) skills, as was funded by my employer, and adopt Mindfulness – to allow myself to see, hear, and smell the beauty around me. Bournemouth allows for that and the beach provides just the spot for this to be carried out; the sea never judges disabilities in the way employers do.