Are you ready and able?

On first glance at CSR tools such as the UN Global Compact, the GRI guidelines and ISO 26000, disability does not jump out as one of the big issues that companies should be thinking about. This seems to be because even though the need to promote and respect the human rights of people with disabilities is impliedly included in the “human rights” sections of these tools, it is not always expressly referred to in them.

However, there are 470 million disabled people of working age in the world, 238 million of whom live in Asia. Moreover, in 2000 it was estimated by the World Bank that the annual economic cost of depriving disabled people from the workplace is US$2 trillion. When this is taken into consideration it becomes clear that all businesses should be thinking about how they can best respect and promote disabled people and their rights when formulating and implementing their diversity strategies.

Businesses will inevitably face a number of challenges in the process of integrating specific disability related policies and practices into their CSR strategies and corporate culture, but the opportunities of doing this are huge, not only in terms of risk and brand management, but also taking into account the potential new markets that could be opened up as a result.

 Is all of this enough to persuade you to do more to respect and promote the rights of disabled people? If so, then read on, because in the rest of this article we are going to show you how you can go about this in four easy steps.

 

1.  Get out there into the community

In order to foster a corporate culture in which disabled people are truly accepted and integrated, businesses should first take steps to raise awareness of disability issues and to dispel any anxiety that their employees and stakeholders might hold about how to react if any when they come into contact with disabled people.

For example, UBS Singapore arranges talks and events on various special needs such as autism. These events are open to families and other organisations and help to raise awareness of the issues relating to people with disabilities as well as giving all involved valuable opportunities to interact socially on an informal basis. In December 2006 UBS Singapore also helped to raise awareness of the potential and benefit of employing persons with disabilities by sponsoring the Equal EmployAbility Alliance forum.

Corporate events such as these can really help to promote understanding of disability and to dispel any preconceptions that employees or other stakeholders might hold. Conversely, they can also help promote your organisation to disabled people themselves as a place that they might want to work in the future. This in turn will go a long way towards fostering a truly diverse and inclusive culture within your organisation.

 

2.  Help promote fair competition

Lack of access to education and rehabilitation is a big issue according to UNESCO, with more than 90% of children with disabilities in developing countries not attending school. Whilst it is the primary responsibility of governments (and sometimes NGOs), and not businesses to provide disabled people with the resources necessary to get them to work, it will often be in the interests of promoting and embracing diversity for businesses to engage with the bodies which provide these services. 

This can be done by forming partnerships with government bodies or NGOs whereby the business hands over its money, resources, or skills (if appropriate), and the organisations use these to improve their services, by widening access and/or improving quality.

A good example of this is a partnership that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) reports it set up with the UK charity Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD) in Galle, Sri Lanka. According to GSK, the LCD Disability Resource Centre was set up in the wake of the 2004 Asian tsunami. This centre was the first of its kind in the area to support access to health and rehabilitation services, provide inclusive education, and create livelihood opportunities for young disabled people. Direct results from this partnership can be seen through the eyes of one young man who the centre helped – he now owns his own business selling spices to local people. By helping to provide access to rehabilitation and education for this man, GSK therefore also helped him find work, enabling him to lead a normal life.

This project demonstrates very well how partnerships can be formed between businesses and public sector organizations to help disabled people develop the necessary skills to be able to compete with able bodied people for jobs, demonstrating their commitment to diversity and improving their competitiveness in the marketplace at the same time.

 

3. Make your workplace accessible

Disabled people are often excluded from society not directly because they are disabled themselves, but indirectly because we live in disabling environments: think of all those times you have walked up a set of stairs to get into a “disabled friendly” lift, and then think about how someone in a wheelchair would get up the stairs. To the extent that organisations are able, it is therefore important that they make their workplaces accessible for disabled people.

Some businesses are obviously not going to have the funds to make big adjustments to their working spaces, but there are often government incentives available to assist with this. For example, the Singapore Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports created the “Open Door Fund” in 2007 providing employers of disabled people, amongst other things, with financial support to modify workplaces to accommodate the needs of disabled people.

Feedback can also be obtained from the people with disabilities themselves as to what accommodation needs to be made for them whilst at work; businesses might find after doing this that the adjustments actually required are much more minimal than they had anticipated, or that it is not actually the business’ responsibility to make the necessary adjustments but that of its building management company. For example, UBS obtained feedback from its disabled employees, and as a result of this has persuaded the company managing its building to make a number of modifications to increase accessibility.

 

4. Accept, embrace and harness the skills of disabled people within your business (and outside it)

A number of Asian states, Hong Kong, China and Vietnam included, already have disability discrimination legislation in force, and so businesses there are not currently able or allowed to discriminate against disabled people either in the recruitment process or whilst they are at work. However, as you have heard from us many times, CSR is all about going beyond the law.

In an ideal world, if businesses have made efforts with the suggested steps above, then by the time disabled people come to a job interview or join the business its workforce will have let go of any preconceptions they may have had about disability. However, this is sometimes easier said than done. Ultimately, no matter what good intentions they have, people are always going to be curious and a little bit apprehensive about anyone they perceive to be different. So how should this be overcome?

This is a difficult question, and the only real answer is to give it time. All human bonds and relationships are built on common experiences and develop gradually over a period of weeks or months. Think about the person who sits opposite you at work. When you first met them it is likely that you noticed every day what kind of clothes they were wearing, what accent they had, etcetera; all the surface things. But then, as you got to know the person better, you probably stopped noticing all of those things.

To truly embrace disability both within and outside the workplace, businesses should therefore ensure that able bodied and disabled people work together on an equal basis, and simply leave them to it. Eventually the nature of the relationships will change, and whilst the disabled people will stop noticing what colour shoes their colleagues are wearing to work every day and will instead start noticing who their colleagues really are as fellow workers and what they can bring to the business, the able bodied people will in turn stop noticing the disability itself, and will start to see who the disabled people really are as fellow workers and what they can bring to the business.

A good way for organisations practically to achieve this without having to make a firm commitment from the outset might be, as is done often before employing able bodied people on a permanent basis, to offer disabled people internships. UBS has taken this approach in its Singapore office and thinks that it serves as a useful “courtship” period, giving both parties the opportunity to get to know each other. 

This approach can further be replicated in the course of your business’ relationships with external contractors, suppliers and other stakeholders and in this way you can facilitate a change in attitudes towards disability not only within your own workforce but also on a stakeholder- wide basis.

True acceptance and understanding of disability and disabled people is still a very long way off, especially in many countries in Asia. However, by following the four easy steps set out above, businesses can play a very large part in helping us to get there. ■