Accessibility: Paving the way for disability inclusion in the workplace

Braille displays on the laptop, meetings with sign language interpretation or structural measures to design a wheelchair-accessible environment – there are many ways to create a welcoming and accessible workplace. A person’s unique requirements and special needs should always form the foundation of these accommodations. Companies must have a way to quickly and easily access the relevant resources to employ people with disabilities and take the necessary measures. "Many small and medium-sized companies often lack the critical information," says Andrea Kurtenacker, Head of the Department of Labor Force Participation and Inclusion at the German Economic Institute in Cologne (IW Köln). Even among companies that excel in hiring people with disabilities, less than 60 percent have the pertinent information – on auxiliary aids and services, for example - to develop an accessible workplace. "Only 45 percent say they have sufficient and adequate information to hire employees with disabilities. Digital portals such as www.kofa.de and www.rehadat.de offer business support services."

The Competence Center for Employee Retention (KOFA) at the German Economic Institute in Cologne (IW Köln) offers a multitude of services, aimed at helping small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). Although these services don’t include consulting specific to individual companies, KOFA provides a broad range of online resources, best practices and dossiers pertaining to topics such as digitalization and inclusion. "It should be noted that the topic of 'employment' is secondary to 'employee retention'," says Christoph Metzler of KOFA. He goes on to say that most people with disabilities come by their disability later in their professional life. "It is important for employers to take the right steps – both from a technical and organizational perspective – to retain a great employee. The percentage of older workers in the workforce has risen in recent years and there is a shortage of alternative staffing in some professions, which will make employee retention more important than ever in years to come," Metzler explains. In our article Digitization: Harnessing the power of inclusion to create more accessible workplaces, Metzler and Kurtenacker talk about other developments with high potential.

Impartial information and guidance on workplace accommodations for people with disabilities and those living with chronic illnesses are key factors to implementation success. Interested parties can refer to information sources like REHADAT. This nationwide, unbiased information portal has 14 portals as a one-stop source of themed information, surveys, and publications – topics run the gamut from rheumatic diseases to hearing impairments. A key component of the portal refer to best practices in hiring and retaining employees with disabilities. The REHADAT Gute Praxis ("best practice") portal is currently getting a total overhaul and is expected to relaunch in July, featuring 900 best practice cases, which will show readers examples of successful labor force participation.

Anja Winkler is living proof of successful labor force participation: She is a senior civil servant at the Dresden University of Technology and uses a variety of technical supports, a personal attendant, and self-determination to meet and exceed her job requirements. Her visual impairment has no bearing on her consulting capacity and the way her colleagues perceive her. They all appreciate and value her unique expertise. In a REHACARE.com interview, she explains, "breaking down mental barriers is more important than auxiliary aids and services". Learn what she means by that in our interview.

Christoph Metzler, who also has a severe visual impairment, appreciates the benefits of auxiliary aids and services to facilitate labor force participation: "I believe that advances in technology – like exoskeletons – will unquestionably enhance and increase the ability of people with disabilities to work in many industry sectors in the near future. There are ingenious gadgets and technologies designed to help people with visual impairment recognize faces and perform mobile character reader functions." However, the topic of inclusion should not be narrowed down to just this one aspect. Human interaction and connectivity continue to be crucial components. Metzler hopes that people can speak openly about their health struggles at the workplace and get honest and respectful feedback from their supervisors and managers in the process. This also applies to mental disorders, which often still trigger the fear of making mistakes. Sometimes both sides need support in this setting. KOFA has teamed up with Aktion Mensch (a registered German social organization, which is an initiative of ZDF, a prime time German television channel), and developed guidelines pertaining to this topic, available as a free download.

A workplace that is ideally barrier-free in every sense of the word not only promotes labor force participation, but also encourages self-determination. "People often define and view accessibility in terms of assistive technologies, but it is so much more than that. It paves the way to happiness and life satisfaction," says Metzler. "Personal autonomy and equality are such valuable human experiences, especially for people who are often tasked with overcoming obstacles and finding a solution to balance work, life, and disability on a daily basis. Needless to say, self-determination and recognition are not just important in the workplace but many people find great meaning and purpose from their work experience."