The Access to Work scheme is a non-repayable grant issued by the UK government to support people with disabilities and difficulties in the workplace. The purpose of the Access to Work grant is to improve the employee’s ability to perform at the same level as non-disabled and neurotypical employees in the workplace. Disabled and neurodivergent employees can encounter a wide range of barriers and limitations in the workplace, however with the Access to Work grant you can utilise the offers available to you for a better experience in the office and improved quality of work.

How do I determine if I’m eligible to apply?

If you have a diagnosed disability you can apply for the Access to Work grant, as long as you meet the following requirements: 

• You are a paid employee over the age of 16.
• You are disabled, neurodivergent or have a temporary or chronic health condition.
• Your disability, impairment or condition puts you at a disadvantage in the workplace, affects your working ability or factors relating to being present at work.

How can I apply?

You can apply for the Access to Work grant either online, by telephone or by sending the application form by post.  (All three will be hyperlinked)

What information do I need to provide?

When you apply for the Access to Work grant you will need to provide the following:

•  Your personal details including name, date of birth, telephone number and email address.
• The name and contact details of your employer and workplace. Your employer will need to confirm you are in employment with the company.
• Your disability details including a diagnosis letter or evidence of your condition as well as specifics on how it limits your ability to work at the same level as non-disabled and neurotypical employees.
• A list of support provisions which you think will aid your working ability and benefit you in the workplace based on your individual needs.
• Your Unique taxpayer reference number if you are self-employed.

What can I be offered from the Access to Work scheme?

You can be offered a wide range of support tools and methods up to the value of £62,900 per year. The offers you receive will be based on your individual needs. Many disabled and neurodivergent employees benefit from support such as noise-cancelling headphones or ear plugs, an adjustment keyboard, laptop, microphone and live scribe pen. Aside from equipment, assistive technology software such as Jamworks for Business can transform the way that employees with disabilities carry out tasks and roles in the workplace.

AI Tools for aiding you in the workplace

The introduction of AI models in technology is a positive development for aiding your disability. There are a wide range of AI tools which can benefit you in the workplace to succeed in your role and help you to feel accomplished without limitations and barriers holding you back. With the Access to Work grant you can access these tools for free so it’s a great opportunity to avail of to reduce your stress levels in the workplace and feel more confident in your career!

Automatic Meeting Recording Bots

Jamworks for Business is an assistive technology software which automatically records, transcribes and summarises meetings with the power of the latest trained GPT AI models. The automatic meeting recording bot is a valuable tool which you can benefit from as a disabled employee as it covers a number of areas of work for you to simplify tasks and clear up your schedule to have more free time. This is done by syncing your work calendar to your Jamworks for Business account and the Automatic Meeting Recording Bot will automatically attend all of your online meetings and record every session, even if you aren’t able to attend!

This will help you in the workplace as Jamworks will provide you with a fully automated transcript of all meetings which is also available to listen to in audio format if you have a condition which affects your focus or reading ability.

 

Live Captioning

If you find it difficult to focus and listen to what is being said during an online meeting or call, the Jamworks Live Captioning feature can be a beneficial feature for you to engage with at work. Captions are generated through the use of AI technology which are then saved as a transcript at the end of the session.

 

Summarisation

If you struggle to summarise or simplify paragraphs of text or information, you will find the AI Summarisation feature of Jamworks useful in the workplace. This is a tool which uses AI to analyse a section or highlight of information taken from a session and is summarised into a few sentences to condense details to make them easier to understand and absorb.

 

AI Action items

Additionally, the AI Action Items feature will further break down the session into a list of key points and actions for what information and tasks need to be taken away from the meeting so that you have a visual outline of what has been discussed and the steps to take moving forward from this session.

 

Highlights

The highlight feature is a tool which can aid your note-taking abilities in working environments. You can start a Jamworks session either online or at an in-person meeting and click the highlight button any time you want to note-down information or an important section of information is being discussed.

 

Automatic Topic Detection and Highlights

If you struggle with multitasking, you can use the Automated Highlight feature on your account and let AI do all the work. Jamworks will automatically detect when an important topic is being discussed and create a highlight clip for you. At the end of the session, you will have a short playlist with all of these highlights of information to listen back to or read through summaries and automated transcript. This will save you time as an employee as you won’t need to rewatch the entire recording to access information.

 

Jamworks Chatbot

Jamworks for Business can provide you with easily accessible information alongside reviewing your notes with the Jamworks Chatbot, an AI chat feature which you can ask pretty much anything! The Jamworks Chatbot will assist you with any further enquiries you have related to your work content.

 

As you can see from the variety of AI generated features outlined, Jamworks for Business can enable you to access multimedia notes to aid your individual needs in the workplace. Aside from Jamworks, other AI tools which are available to aid employees in the workplace are Notion and Grammarly.

Notion is a productivity and note-taking application which is free and available to use on both the website and app. Notion AI can summarise tables, projects and notes written within the app to simplify details and break them down to key points. Notion uses the power of AI to suggest writing improvements to words and paragraphs to elevate the quality of a piece to a higher standard. This can be beneficial for you if your condition impacts your reading and writing abilities in the workplace.

Grammarly provides a similar feature through the use of AI as it can be used as a browser extension to automatically check for spelling and typing errors, as well as suggest alternative phrasing to suit a specific tone for a piece of writing.

AI tools such as Jamworks for Business, Notion and Grammarly can enable you and other disabled and neurodivergent employees to stay focused in meetings, take automated meeting notes, share insights easily and become more productive. When applying for the Access to Work grant, you can suggest Jamworks for Business and these other AI tools as methods of support for your funding to aid your working ability due to the features they provide employees for access to multimedia notes and content adaptation.

Click here to get started with Jamworks for Business today!