Seprah Ha­stick

Em­brac­ing di­ver­si­ty has be­come a sta­ple in many or­gan­i­sa­tions’ op­er­a­tions. How­ev­er, in­clu­sion is equal­ly im­por­tant, yet re­ceives less com­mit­ment and at­ten­tion. Di­ver­si­ty is in­deed a core val­ue, but its abil­i­ty to thrive de­pends heav­i­ly on in­clu­sion.

With to­day’s so­cial me­dia cli­mate, it is easy to fall in­to the trap of us­ing terms like di­ver­si­ty, eq­ui­ty and in­clu­sion as buzz­words, when in re­al­i­ty they should be at the core of com­pa­ny val­ues.

Larg­er com­pa­nies like Google, Mi­crosoft, Face­book and Ap­ple have put ini­tia­tives in place to in­crease di­ver­si­ty and in­clu­sion, con­duct­ing year­ly re­ports to track their progress. Small­er, lo­cal or­gan­i­sa­tions can take a page out of their books and im­ple­ment sim­i­lar poli­cies so that no as­pect of so­ci­ety is left be­hind when it comes to ser­vice de­liv­ery.

While all events con­duct­ed by an or­gan­i­sa­tion should take ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty in­to con­sid­er­a­tion, net­work­ing events are of par­tic­u­lar sig­nif­i­cance.

Per­sons who are dis­abled are al­ready at a dis­ad­van­tage where al­lo­ca­tion of re­sources is con­cerned, hence the ex­po­sure to ser­vices such as health­care, ed­u­ca­tion, trans­porta­tion and em­ploy­ment through net­work­ing is vi­tal for a ful­fill­ing life. There are sev­er­al ways net­work­ing can be made ac­ces­si­ble, from venue se­lec­tion to com­mu­ni­ca­tion.

Phys­i­cal ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty should be pri­ori­tised when se­lect­ing a venue so that per­sons with mo­bil­i­ty is­sues can be com­fort­ably ac­com­mo­dat­ed.

Peo­ple who are blind/vi­su­al­ly im­paired stand to ben­e­fit from ac­ces­si­ble venues as well. For in­stance, those with low vi­sion would ap­pre­ci­ate con­trast­ing dé­cor and fur­ni­ture and per­sons with more se­vere vi­sion loss can nav­i­gate more freely with tac­tile sig­nage and clear path­ways.

With re­spect to com­mu­ni­ca­tion, in­di­vid­u­als who are sight­ed should be proac­tive in en­sur­ing that per­sons who are blind/vi­su­al­ly im­paired feel in­clud­ed. Start a con­ver­sa­tion by in­tro­duc­ing your­self clear­ly and feel free to talk about top­ics that are not nec­es­sar­i­ly re­lat­ed to blind­ness. Ask­ing about their in­ter­ests can lead to find­ing com­mon ground, which can then re­sult in re­la­tion­ship build­ing.

Apart from net­work­ing, sport­ing ac­tiv­i­ties are cru­cial for per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties. It fos­ters re­silience and em­pow­er­ment, as it can im­prove phys­i­cal fit­ness and boost con­fi­dence.

Fur­ther­more, sports is an ex­cel­lent way to de­vel­op skills that may be use­ful in over­com­ing cer­tain chal­lenges and achiev­ing goals. Sport­ing or­gan­i­sa­tions have the pow­er to con­tribute to the per­son­al growth, skillset and well-be­ing of per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties, sim­ply by mak­ing their ac­tiv­i­ties ac­ces­si­ble.

Ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty in this sense refers to mak­ing events such as 5k runs, hikes and oth­er ac­tiv­i­ties in­clu­sive by invit­ing the dis­abled com­mu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate.

For in­stance, a few blind/vi­su­al­ly im­paired per­sons par­tic­i­pat­ed in a 5k host­ed by the Min­istry of Sports a while ago. With the as­sis­tance of sight­ed in­di­vid­u­als, they were able to fol­low the path and com­plete the 5k in its en­tire­ty. Not on­ly can these types of ac­tiv­i­ties help per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties re­alise their full po­ten­tial, but it can em­pow­er them to be­come stronger ad­vo­cates for them­selves and oth­ers.

A field where ad­vo­ca­cy is es­sen­tial for ef­fi­cien­cy is cus­tomer ser­vice. Com­pa­nies ought to equip their staff with the know-how to deal with per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties, so that an in­ci­dence of dis­crim­i­na­tion is slim to none.

First­ly, the in­di­vid­ual’s dig­ni­ty should be in­tact at the end of the in­ter­ac­tion. So, the ser­vice should be pro­vid­ed in a re­spect­ful man­ner in line with the needs of the in­di­vid­ual.

Sec­ond­ly, their in­de­pen­dence needs to be pre­served while si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly be­ing mind­ful of their right to safe­ty and per­son­al pri­va­cy. Noth­ing di­min­ish­es a per­son who is blind/vi­su­al­ly im­paired more than when they are com­plete­ly ig­nored and any in­ter­ac­tion is re­served for the sight­ed per­son who may ac­com­pa­ny them.

Third­ly, the dis­abled com­mu­ni­ty does not have to be seg­re­gat­ed from the pop­u­la­tion in or­der to re­ceive the ben­e­fits of ser­vices. They can be in the same place, at the same time and ac­cess the ser­vices in sim­i­lar ways.

For ex­am­ple, a blind/vi­su­al­ly im­paired com­muter does not need to wait un­til a front seat is avail­able. They are ca­pa­ble of nav­i­gat­ing to the back of a maxi/taxi with a lit­tle as­sis­tance.

Fi­nal­ly, ser­vice out­comes need to be the same across the board. This means that at the end of a bak­ing class for per­sons who are blind, they should be able to make cin­na­mon rolls and cakes with the same skill as their non-dis­abled coun­ter­parts.

To con­clude, per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties, re­gard­less of their age, gen­der, faith, eth­nic­i­ty or any oth­er iden­ti­ty char­ac­ter­is­tic, ought to reap the re­wards of ac­ces­si­ble, non-dis­crim­i­na­to­ry ser­vices and pro­grammes.

Whether it be net­work­ing events, sport­ing ac­tiv­i­ties or cus­tomer ser­vice, the dis­abled com­mu­ni­ty should not feel as though they are mar­gin­alised. In­clu­sion then needs to be more than just a buzz­word but an ac­tion item on every­one’s agen­da.

This col­umn is sup­plied in con­junc­tion with the T&T Blind Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion

Head­quar­ters: 118 Duke Street, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad

Email:ttb­wa1914@gmail.com

Phone: (868) 624-4675

What­sApp: (868) 395-3086