Raising awareness of EDSHSD at the The Highway Authorities and Utilities Committee Convention 

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• 4 April, 2025

For the past few months, one of our members Alex Akitici has volunteered to lead the Community Pillar, creating the next 5 year vision for the The Highway Authorities and Utilities Committee (HAUC UK).  As part of the Community Pillar Alex is ensuring that Accessibility and Inclusion are within this vision to ensure all street and road works are accessible when navigating through.

On the 2nd April Alex attended the HAUC UK convention to talk about our vision and started with an insight into her lived experience of EDS and how she collapses frequently, with video footage of this playing behind me, she was as always wearing a zebra scarf!  She is also committed to raising awareness of visible and invisible health conditions and the impact street and road works can have when they are not accessible.  She has worked within the Street Works arena for 22 years and is trying to affect positive change for all.

Alex predominantly works from home and has found working helps her mental health whilst living with a painful and debilitating condition.  She was in employment when she started to collapse and her company have supported her throughout providing reasonable adjustments to allow her to continue working.

The company she works for have also supported her in creating an Inclusive Street Works training video which she is also part of and provides some of the narration.  Take a look at the HAUC vision 2030 and also the Inclusive Street Works Training video that we are hoping will be shared with all operatives across the country.

Alex is trying to use the experience of having a debilitating health condition and what it is teaching her, to raise awareness and educate society to affect positive change for all!

Thank you Alex