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IP Ability is the IP Inclusive community for disabled people, carers and their allies working within the IP professions.Β We aim to provide a supportive and informative network focusing on issues relating to disability, neurodiversity and health conditions of all kinds, be they mental or physical, visible or invisible, permanent or temporary, sudden onset or progressive.

IP Ability intends to:

  • provide support for those already working within the IP professions, in all roles and at all stages of their careers;
  • encourage and assist in making the IP professions accessible, inclusive and welcoming for those in the disabled and neurodiverse communities, with health conditions, and in care-giving roles; and
  • raise awareness and understanding of disabilities, neurodiversity, health conditions, and care-giving roles within the IP professions.

The IP Ability community is run by a small volunteer committee. If you’re interested in being part of the committee or taking more of an active role in the community, please email us or join our LinkedInΒ or Facebook group. We would love to hear from you, whether with questions, offers of help or suggestions for future activities. Our current committee members are shown further down this page.

You can read about what we got up to in our first year in this article by committee member Francesca Rivers. Some of our other awareness-raising work is summarised in this “IP Ability in the media” post. To receive updates about our future activities and events, sign up to the IP Inclusive mailing list here and select IP Ability as one of your communities of interest. (Please note that if you’re already signed up to one of our mailing lists, when you submit the form you will be asked to “update your preferences”.)

You can watch recordings of our recent webinars on our YouTube playlist:

Join our LinkedIn and Facebook groups, follow us on Twitter (@IP_Ability) or email us: LinkedIn Facebook GroupΒ TwitterΒ Email

Resources

The IP Ability committee has compiled a collection of useful links and resources to help IP professionals and employers become more disability-confident. You can access the latest version here.Β The collection includes general resources for employers, employees and aspiring IP professionals. It also highlights some tools and resources relating to specific aspects of disability, neurodiversity, health and caring.

Here are links to recordings of relevant IP Inclusive/IP Ability events:

 

Our committee members have also taken part in IP Inclusive’s “Allies & Intersectionality” interview series: in Episode 3, Jonathan Andrews shared his experiences of being on the autism spectrum, whilst in Episode 4, Chris Clarke spoke about being a carer. Links to various other IP Ability media coverage, including articles on a range of disability-related issues, can be found in our “IP Ability in the Media” post.

Below you can listen to an audio recording of the discussions at our 3 December 2019 launch gathering:

 

You may also find our Mental Health and Wellbeing page useful, or the “News and Features” posts below. Plus there’s a wonderful, short video here about epilepsy awareness, which we created for “Purple Day” on 26 March 2021.

We would love to hear from you with your suggestions, both about resources you already know of and those you’d like to find here. Please also check out IP Inclusive’s main Resources page for other materials relevant to diversity and inclusion.

Our launch survey

We decided to begin our work by getting a better idea of current levels of support in the IP sector for disabled people and carers. We wanted to know how much awareness and understanding there was, among both employers and employees, about suitable workplace adjustments; whether people felt comfortable asking for support; and generally how “disability-confident” our organisations were. We launched our inaugural survey in November 2019 and we used the information to help shape our 2020 plans, allowing us to target support and awareness-raising to the areas where they were most needed.

The survey was open to allΒ IP professionals, whatever their role and career level. Importantly, it was just as much for people who don’tΒ have disabilities or caring responsibilities as for those who do: this gave us valuable information about the extent of any problems that the responses identified. We were extremely grateful to everyone who took part.

We re-ran the survey in December 2022 and early 2023, to see how things had changed. To find out more, read our report of those results.

Upcoming events

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Allies, IP & ME, IP Ability, Lunch and Learn, Women in IP

Through a different lens

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Allies, Workplace behaviour

Allyship and Preventing Sexual Harassment Workshop

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IP Ability

Need something to look forward to…?

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Previous events

Allies, Webinars, Women in IP

Allyship and preventing sexual harassment – are you ready for the Worker Protection Act?

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Knowing Me, Knowing You? ADHD And the IP Profession

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Disability, IP Ability, Neurodiversity

Myth-Busting Disability and Neurodiversity

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Neurodiversity, Regional events, Scotland network

IP Inclusive Scotland Network event: Neuro-inclusion

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Carers, IP Ability, Webinars

All you need to know about the new Carer’s Leave Act

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Allies, Regional events, Workplace behaviour

Help! How do I start a conversation on EDI?

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IPause, Menopause, Remote access meeting, Social, Women in IP

Menopause Matters: It takes a village

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IPause, Menopause, Webinars, Women in IP

Supporting the (peri)menopause life-stage with life-style

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IP Ability, Menopause, Webinars, Women in IP

Better eating for beating (peri)menopause

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Disability, IP Ability, Unconscious bias, Webinars

Beyond Labels: Challenging the Stigma of ‘Disabled’

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Menopause, Webinars, Women in IP

Menopause Myths

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IP Ability, Mental health, Webinars, Women in IP

Shining a light on the menopause

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Disability, IP Ability, Webinars

How to be Disability Confident – and why it matters

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IP Ability, Menopause, Remote access meeting, Women in IP

Menopause matters: symptoms, treatments & coping strategies

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Inclusivity Unlocked!, Menopause, Webinars

Menopause: what’s changing?

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Disability, Inclusivity Unlocked!, Webinars

Online, but not forgotten

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IP Ability, Menopause, Remote access meeting, Women in IP

Menopause matters

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Inclusivity Unlocked!, Webinars, Working arrangements

Leaving no one behind (part ii)

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Disability, IP Ability, Remote access meeting

Real lives: a Disability Pride Month webinar

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Disability, IP Ability, Neurodiversity, Webinars

Workplace adjustments – joint webinar with CIPA

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Mental health, Webinars

Mental health & intersectionality

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Disability, IP Ability, Remote access meeting, Social

IP Ability & IPO Mixer in honour of International Day of Persons with Disabilities

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Disability, IP Ability, Neurodiversity, Webinars

Late diagnosis of, and gender differences in, neurodiversity

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Mental health, Webinars

Not just for Movember…

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Disability, Hybrid event, IP Out

Disability and LGBT: Hidden Intersections and Experiences

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Carers, IP Ability, IP Non-traditional Family Network, Webinars

Carers and solo parents at work

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IP Ability, Regional events, Remote access meeting, Social, Women in IP

Women in IP May coffee dates

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IP Ability, Mental health, Webinars

IP Ability’s stress management webinar

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Disability, Webinars

Reasonable adjustments – what are they, and how can we get them right?

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Disability, IP Ability, Remote access meeting

IP Ability event: International Day of Persons with Disabilities

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Allies, IP & ME, IP Ability, IP Futures, IP Out, Regional events, Remote access meeting, Women in IP

How to be a better ally: answers to those questions you’ve always wanted to ask

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Disability, IP Ability, Webinars

Dyslexia and dyspraxia demystified

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Disability, IP Ability, Webinars

Invisible disabilities

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Allies, IP & ME, IP Ability, IP Futures, IP Out, Regional events, Remote access meeting, Women in IP

Allies & supporters: Rescheduled

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Allies

Allies & intersectionality: our annual diversity breakfast

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IP Ability, Webinars, Women in IP

Inclusivity and the menopause

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IP Ability

IP Ability: informal launch gathering

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Disability, Webinars

Colleagues on the autism spectrum

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Disability, Webinars

Enabling not Disabling

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IP Ability News & Features

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The IP Ability committee

Victoria Barker

IP Ability committee

Finnegan

Caelia Bryn-Jacobsen (she/her)

IP Ability committee; Advisory Board

Kilburn & Strode

Becky Campbell (she/her)

IP Ability & IP Out committees; Advisory Board

Chris Clarke

IP Ability committee co-lead

Vectura

Loreta Dimech-Mencattelli (she/her)

IP Ability committee

Marks & Clerk

Steff Jackson

IP Ability committee

HGF

Marianne Privett

IP Ability committee co-lead

AA Thornton

Megan Rannard

IP Ability committee; Advisory Board

Marks & Clerk

Barbara Rigby (she/her)

IP Ability committee

Boult Wade Tennant

Francesca Rivers (she/her)

IP Ability committee

Cancer Research Horizons