Today marks an important day in the calendar - International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2021.
It is a day that brings a focus to the huge array of difficulties that so many people face in our communities and further afield across the world, day in day out, and raises awareness of the need for the world to be a far more inclusive place for everyone.
As a club we are enormously proud of the huge amount of work we have put in to establishing one of, if not the most, comprehensive and well organised Disability Cricket sections of all the eighteen First-Class counties - a set up that now sees the Club fielding three different sides in competitive Disability Cricket - two in the D40 formats and one in the Super 9's.
We owe a lot to the coaches who run our Disability programmes, and whilst they've still got some tough winter months ahead of them in training ahead of next season, we know they're keen as anything to get out there on the field in April and get back in action for what promises to be exciting season ahead. After such a pandemic disrupted Disability playing schedule over the last two seasons, it's been a difficult time for all our Disability squad players, who we wish every success for the 2022 season.
We are delighted to support this annual occasion, International Day of Persons With Disabilities, and whilst on the cricketing front our Disability programme is thriving, we're also making steps off the field to make Middlesex a more inclusive and accessible Club for everyone.
According to the World Health Organisation Report on Disability, 15% of the world’s population, or more than 1 billion people, are living with a disability. Of this number, it’s estimated 450 million are living with a mental or neurological condition.
To support everyone engaging with us online through the Middlesex website, we provide accessibility and language options to provide the best possible online experience for everyone.
These incredible online tools, provided by Recite Me, offer accessibility and language support options which include text to speech functionality, fully customisable styling features, reading aids, and a translation tool with over 100 languages, including 35 text-to-speech voices and many other features besides.
Please try out our inclusive toolkit on our website and join us across social media in creating awareness to make a positive difference for people with disabilities.
Simply go to any page on the Middlesex website and click the yellow ACCESSIBILITY TOOLS button in the bottom right corner of your screen, to open up a terrific suite of accessibility aids.
Our thanks go to Recite Me for providing us with software that allows us to be more accessible to online viewers with disabilities.
Happy International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2021.
