Breast cancer awareness charity, CoppaFeel! has implemented Recite Me assistive technology on its website to continue to drive forward its vision of becoming an equitable organisation. We caught up with Phoebe Lazell, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager at CoppaFeel! To discuss accessibility and the changes they are making to reach their overall diversity and inclusion mission.
What is CoppaFeel! and what do you aim to achieve?
CoppaFeel! is the first youth-focused breast health awareness charity. We exist to give everyone the best possible chance of surviving breast cancer by educating young people on the importance of getting to know your body. Our ambition is for all breast cancers to be diagnosed at the earliest stage possible when treatments are more available and survival rates are higher. We like to talk about a hard-hitting subject in a light-hearted way – we’re here to remind you that checking your chest isn’t only fun, it could save your life.
Could you give me a bit of background on your role as EDI lead?
As EDI Manager, I advocate for our equity, diversity and inclusivity priorities at CoppaFeel!. It’s my job to create open environments where we can listen, learn, reflect and question so that we can drive forward our vision to become an equitable organisation; ensuring our message is relevant and accessible to everyone. Internally, I work to build a culture of belonging by assisting with recruitment reviews, flexible working and staff training. While externally I work alongside our Education and Marketing departments to create tailored resources and outputs for minoritised communities so that we can help to close the health inequity gap.
Learn more about equality vs equity here.
Why is accessibility important to CoppaFeel!?
Breast cancer can affect anybody. That means we need to be actively inclusive in our work. When it comes to healthcare, disabled peoples are too often dismissed or ignored for health-related issues that don’t ‘relate’ to their disability. It is our job to ensure that everyone has access to our chest-checking message. In order to do this, we must recognise that we can’t have a one-size-fits-all approach and instead, need our work to be mindful of individual needs so that we can tailor our checking guidance accordingly.
How does Recite Me align with your overall accessibility mission?
We’re in the business of ensuring that quality education and healthcare are available to all young people so any tool that means more individuals have access to our life-saving resources is an enormous win. When redesigning our website, accessibility was top of our list of priorities. We’re working with the brilliant folk at Huxley Digital who are experts in building accessible, easy-to-use and inclusive websites and adding the Recite Me assistive toolbar felt like a no-brainer. We are so pleased that more young people will be able to use our website in a way that best suits their needs.
We also have our very own accessibility checker for websites. This allows our customers to check their accessibility score for free.
