The importance of creating a disability-friendly workplace has long been emphasized, but a recent report found that less than 19% of private sector companies in India have specific policies or processes in place to facilitate the hiring of people with disabilities.
Consistent with these findings, less than 25% of workplaces report providing disability-accessible restrooms or technological accommodations such as wheelchairs or screen readers. Additionally, 17% of workplaces provide no accommodations at all. It is clear that disability inclusion in the country is still in its infancy.
What challenges do companies face when it comes to hiring people with disabilities, and what can they do to overcome those obstacles? To answer these questions, we spoke with Akshay Tyagi, Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group, and Sanyucta Chakravarty, Head of Culture Transformation, Learning and Development (L&D), DEI, Forbes Marshall.
It’s not always smooth sailing
Building an inclusive organization is not without its challenges. Reflecting on their experiences implementing inclusive hiring and operational practices, Sanyucta and Akshay highlighted some of the key barriers companies can face.
Ensuring representativeness
According to Akshay, a key first step in fostering inclusion is to build representation into the ethos of the organization. “Our aim is to ensure that everyone who comes in, whether they’re a guest or a team member, feels represented within the larger framework of the organization,” he says.
Sanyukta points out that having representation at various levels of the organisation is also important: “Though we are a manufacturing company, we don’t want to just give out on-site employment to add another item to the representation checklist. People are looking to build a career here, so we aim to assign roles that complement an individual’s natural abilities and the skills they can acquire through training.”
However, 25% of the 7.8 million children with disabilities in India do not attend any educational institution. In addition, various challenges regarding representation, accessibility and discrimination in higher education institutions also limit their access to equal opportunities and hinder their integration into the mainstream student population. Limited educational opportunities also impact their employability in the corporate sector.
Akshay said, “There are not enough schools and hotel management institutes that offer courses that provide adequate support to people with hearing, speech, visual impairments and those with neurodevelopmental disorders. This is a significant shortfall in the education and skills development sector and it also impacts corporate efforts to ensure representation within the workplace. As a result, many corporate policies and frameworks are designed by individuals who have no experience of disabilities.”
Those who manage to secure work in these sectors may distrust corporate workplaces as they may see them as an extension of the same unsupportive system that created so many obstacles for them. Similarly, their families and carers are unlikely to trust companies simply because they claim to be inclusive.
Overcoming attitudinal barriers
There is an urgent need to build greater trust between businesses and people with disabilities by challenging common assumptions about the capabilities of people with disabilities and addressing the concerns of managers who believe that hiring people with disabilities requires more time and resources. Akshay believes the solution lies in facilitating interaction between people with disabilities (and their families) and non-disabled stakeholders within the corporate environment.
It is important to take into account the diverse living conditions of people with disabilities.
He says: “We are talking about a community that has been marginalised for years, so earning their trust is essential. For example, parents of many disabled young people come to us with anxieties about how we intend to integrate their children into the workforce. Engaging with them and getting their buy-in is essential to foster the inclusion we seek.” Akshay also believes that ongoing engagement with the community helps change the prejudices that exist among employers. “A lot of things change when you start engaging and engaging with the disability community, as it helps you question your assumptions about whether someone is ready or capable to meet workplace expectations.”
Sanyukta points out that it is also important to be mindful of the diverse life stories of people with disabilities: “The biggest challenge is our assumptions and prejudices. Everyone has their own unique experience, be it mobility impairment, hearing impairment, visual impairment, etc. So we’ve learnt that we have to work on a case-by-case basis and figure out what can be done.” [accommodations] It works for each individual.”
The biggest challenge is our own assumptions and biases. | Image credit: Canva (Generative AI)
The path to inclusion
While these challenges can hinder a smooth transition to a disability-friendly work environment, companies can take practical steps to address them.
1. Start with accessibility
Ensuring accessibility in the workplace is a fundamental element of building an inclusive work culture. An inclusive environment in the workplace opens up opportunities for people with disabilities to feel welcome and participate fully. Embedding such accessibility in organizational culture includes providing barrier-free physical infrastructure, using accessible language, adopting flexible training methods and working arrangements, and providing appropriate assistive technology to enable people with disabilities to participate in regular work activities.
2. Take a flexible approach
Each space within an enterprise has its own unique roles, responsibilities, and ways of functioning, so fostering inclusivity in each of these spaces requires an approach that considers the uniqueness of individuals with disabilities — there is no fixed template that can be copied and pasted from one organization to another.
It is important to understand people’s strengths and identify opportunities where you can use them effectively.
“When you’re dealing with a diverse community, you can’t have a static approach,” Akshay points out. Adopting a dynamic strategy also helps cater to the diverse support needs of different disabilities.
“Find roles within your organisation that suit people with different abilities,” adds Sanyukta. It’s important to understand people’s strengths and identify opportunities where you can use them effectively while also providing them with an environment where they can thrive. To illustrate this, Sanyukta gives the example of a hearing and speech impaired person with an arts degree who was hired by an organisation. They were given the opportunity to work in research and development (R&D) and have since worked closely with the marketing department to develop the organisation’s visual brand.
3. Be proactive
Organizations may lament the flaws in the education system that prevent them from hiring people with disabilities. But Akshay emphasizes that the flaws in the system need not deter employers from investing in expanding their candidate options. He says, “Instead of waiting for the system to improve naturally, we thought it would be better to offer scholarships to disabled candidates interested in studying hotel management. This would create a more diverse candidate option, furthering our goal of building an inclusive organization.”
Equally important is ensuring that people with disabilities are involved in designing initiatives to increase inclusion in the workplace, ensuring that their lived experiences underpin the policies and practices designed for them.
4. Work with external partners
Disability inclusion is a key focus for many community-based organizations and nonprofits. Their ongoing involvement in the community and expertise in the disability sector make them ideal partners for businesses looking for assistance with a variety of inclusion-oriented tasks. These organizations and organizations include:
Develop inclusive workplace policies and plan reasonable accommodations to enable individuals with disabilities to contribute in the workplace. Act as external counselors or grievance handlers to help individuals with disabilities feel safer in the workplace. Design awareness and recognition programs for non-disabled individuals. Conduct accessibility audits.
Akshay said, “For us, DEI is a collaborative journey. So we want to share our vision. [with our partners beforehand] Collaborating with other organizations [to help achieve that vision]We not only partner with these nonprofits on their recruitment efforts, but also support their efforts.”
Ultimately, fostering inclusion is an iterative process. Any new initiative is likely to have unanticipated gaps that need to be improved upon. Therefore, organizations should also incorporate a feedback component, encouraging relevant stakeholders to indicate what could be improved upon, and then work towards closing those gaps.
Akshay emphasised the value of feedback when explaining how PWDs are assessed throughout the training and placement process: “We keep in touch with our team members. [with disabilities] Talk to them regularly, and also with parents, carers and work colleagues, to understand whether it really makes sense for them to be in that space. [within the organisation]”We don’t want them to work in a position that doesn’t suit them because they feel pressured to just ‘fit in.'” Through these regular assessments, organizations can ensure team members stay centered throughout their training and upskill them for roles where they can thrive.
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Learn more
Read this article to learn how to build a stronger DEI culture within your nonprofit organization, and read this article to learn more about best practices for hiring people with disabilities in the private sector.
About the Author
Derek Xavier is an Editorial Associate at IDR, responsible for writing, editing and publishing content. He previously held editorial positions at Cactus Communications and Firstpost. He holds an MA in Media Studies from the University of Amsterdam and a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai.