I attended a conference event recently which had the most diverse range of speakers of any event that I can remember attending.  What made it especially interesting was that it was aimed at a mainstream audience and was not specifically marketed for a particular minority or gender. It was also located outside of the obvious cities like London, Birmingham, Manchester etc where you’d naturally expect (but not always get) a diverse lineup. I noticed the gender, age and racial mix of the speakers whilst I was there as it was so unusual but it was only after I got home that I realised that it was the first event/conference that I’d ever been to where there was a speaker who was obviously disabled.

This after living in London for the first 25 years of my life, after attending a variety of educational conferences for the past 11 years of my working life and attending events that were keen to promote diversity in other ways.

It certainly gave me pause for thought. Sometimes our advantages in life are so ingrained and part of the status quo that we don’t even know what advantages we have.