zondag 3 december 2017

Corporate Accessibility and Inclusion

Corporate Inclusion and Accessibility, The art of belonging, how do you know if you take part in society, as A full member of society?
Last Friday I presented my abstract Corporate Inclusion and Accessibility, a short compilation of my presentation at the 3rd International Disability Studies Conference 'The Art of Belonging'




# questions and a degrating fence
This presentation offers 3 questions to mend the fences of corporate inclusion, and answer the why organizations should become accessible, how this works and why it’s important to become accessible for all potential customers. In the Netherlands we're champions in fencing in, and boxing in, people, excluding them from society and businesses.



Q1: How can we change the position of people with disabilities in society? Why do people with disabilities have to fight for their position in society on a daily basis? How does that impact your feeling of belonging?
Changing the position of people with disabilities can only be done if we change the way society looks at disabilities. Are we looking from the care site? Or are you looking at people with disabilities as customers? When we look at people with disabilities from a care position, we tend to decide for them, when we look at them as customers, we look at their needs. But are companies equipped to do this? Only if we have insight in customers with disabilities, and this is lacking. Companies need to find a balance between knowing requirements and using the available data.


Q2: Now the art of belonging comes in, how can we make sure that our disabled customers feel they belong to us? How can we take care of them in the best way possible? Belonging to a customer group is all about products that interact with you, you feel the product is for you. How can companies make sure they see people with disabilities as their customers? We need to set a few steps, from involving the board in the need for accessibility as part of strategy. We need to educate our employees on accessibility and requirements to support customers. We need to work with people with disabilities and discuss the needs of these stakeholders as part of our customer satisfaction.


An accessible business modelThe above starts with a business plan, a plan to build an accessible organization, open to all customers. My plan started with a small drawing, based on 4 topcs:
  1. Tools to empower
  2. Knowledge and solutions
  3. Build success
  4. Clear and accessible


Q3: What will happen if we see disabled people as stakeholders?Any business plan should answer the customer question, why will we benefit by this. In regard to inclusion it’s quite simple:
  1. Serves 80% up to 95% of all customers
  2. Develop a new customer base
  3. Saves money by early developments instead of repairs
  4. Reduces service costs
  5. Builds a positive reputation

Business meets accessibility 

Let’s work together and build accessible organizations, open to all customers and without missing out on 20% of our global customer base. Let’s agree on accessible and inclusive organizations! 











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