Maria Grazia Zedda, HS2’s EDI manager, has been recognised by the Shaw Trust for her work supporting people with disabilities. She shares her story:
Maria Grazia Zedda is passionate that people feel empowered to speak up, and speak out about their disability and in doing so make a difference to people’s lives and drive positive change right across the rail industry.
HS2’s workforce equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) senior manager has been recognised by the Shaw Trust for her work supporting people with disabilities, named in the UK’s top 100 most influential people with an impairment or disability.
“Think positively about your disability and what you have learned from it and how valuable your experience is for yourself and for any employer who’d be lucky to hire you,” said Maria, who is severely deaf.
“Anyone with experience of disability, don’t let that stop you from pursuing employment and a career in the railways, as there’s plenty of employers who seek out people with diverse experiences and backgrounds. With a Disability Confident employer, organisations want you to work for them and benefit from your insights, skills and experience.
“Being named as one of the UK’s top 100 most influential disabled people feels amazing and very humbling and as part of my role in EDI it’s an opportunity to help build a legacy of accessibility and disability inclusion in the rail, engineering and construction industries through HS2.”
Maria has worked at HS2 Ltd for almost five years and plays a lead role in ensuring the organisation meets its EDI commitments and targets – this includes attracting more women into the sector and increasing the number of people from underrepresented groups into employment.
Among her achievements over the last 12 months, which were pivotal to her Shaw Trust recognition, includes the development and launch of HS2’s new accessibility policy and digital accessibility hub – which launched on International Disables People’s Day in December.
“I am very proud to be working on HS2 because we have an incredible opportunity to leave a legacy of inclusion for future generations; but they’re also lucky to have me” smiled Maria, who has previously worked as an EDI and disability inclusion consultant for various train operating companies, including access auditing the then Virgin Trains East Coast stations along the route.
“And the same goes for the many disabled people who bring their skills, intellect and resilience to any project or employer. We bring informed and intersectional diverse perspectives that pave the way for innovation, business competitiveness and protect against risks.
“Disabled talent has long been overlooked due to employers’ fears on making workplace adjustments and fears of “getting it wrong”. HS2 and many other Disability Confident Leader organisations like us are demonstrating how being inclusive to disabled colleagues and enabling accessibility policies actually helps them be ahead of the change curve and better equipped to prevent and address future challenges.
“The adjustments made for disabled people (such as flexible working hours, equipment or software) have been proven to help every single employee during the pandemic, for example, and those lessons and examples of best practice are here to stay.”
Maria’s successful career hasn’t come without its challenges, which she still continues to face to this day, which she says often stem from the lack of planning and understanding of accessibility principles, as well as bias of those who upon meeting her jump to the conclusion about her ability to do a job because she is severely deaf.
“At times it’s funny, sometimes there’s an expectation that as a severely deaf person I can lip-read everything – it should be called lip-guessing, not lipreading – or that the automated captioning will accurately capture everything everyone says, no matter how fast they talk or the regional accent they have,” Maria said.
“Many underestimate the fatigue that catches up with you at the end of a working day, in which you’ve been reading captions or lipreading for seven-eight hours. But, working for a Disability-Confident Leader organisation like HS2 and the only Platinum Clear Assured accredited organisation, we make it possible for disabled colleagues and myself to get the workplace adjustments we need to do our job to the best of our ability.
“We use Clear Talents to help ensure we provide adjustments for our disabled colleagues, whether that’s equipment or software or flexible working. For me, that means I’m able to work flexibly and cut out some breaks during the day and catch up later on. We also have our 2Gether Disabled Staff Network which is a source of support and we regularly meet to socialise, help, listen and support each other.”
Maria, who is originally from Cagliari, Sardinia, and now lives in Southeast London, moved to the UK aged 20. After completing a vocational course, she worked at the BBC’s Disability Programmes Unit, leaving to complete a degree in sociology and work with disabled people as an employment manager, supporting candidates get jobs in corporate sectors in the UK, the USA and Italy.
“Leaving Italy was heart breaking and exciting at the same time,” she said. “It was the 90s and I wanted to escape the narrow social confines of my local culture in Sardinia and low-set expectations about my abilities as a woman or as a deaf and disabled person.
“However I also met low expectations and challenges in the UK too, with the additional barrier of assumptions about me as foreign-accented “immigrant” which turned into feeling like a “persona non grata” after Brexit.
“But this made me realise that in every life there’s challenges and it’s about how we as individuals cope and react to them so that we are active players in our own story. I’ve not yet overcome all of my struggles, I’m still learning, but what motivates me is my work in EDI as I’m advocating and working for change not just for myself but for many others too.”
Facing barriers in finding employment as a mother with a disability, Maria took the decision to retrain as an access auditor, setting up her own company when she was nine months pregnant with her second child. Through Wideaware Ltd, she provided training and e-learning on disability equality to thousands of people, including working with Network Rail and the Rail Delivery Group.
It is a passion that continues today, with Maria describing her ultimate goal as the day in which accessibility becomes ‘business as usual’ and not a special request.
“My personal view is that the rail industry needs to engage more often and better with their disabled customers and employees,” said Maria who has written a novel inspired by her life which she hopes sends a message that anyone can aspire to achieve their dreams through self-development, good advice and access to basic human rights.
“Consulting with local disabled people mustn’t be a box-ticking exercise, and should actively factor in accessibility and disability inclusion at the very start of the design stages. I’m incredibly proud of how we’re doing that at HS2. Embedding these principles at design stage, from our worksites, to stations through to the rolling stock, through our inclusive design strategy and the EDI expectations we set right through to our supply chain. We’re not doing this because it’s a nice thing to do, it’s because we are building the best railway in the best way, and that means it’s for all of us.
“Finally, it’s important to understand that accessibility and inclusion are constantly evolving and changing, and many barriers can be overcome not only through design but through technology and inclusive service. Actively and consistently seeking out engagement with disabled customers and colleagues and you’ve got a recipe for business success and longevity.”
