How we're finding new ways to bring accessibility to the workplace

We have all experienced changes to our normal daily patterns in recent months. Being restricted in our personal lives—through lock downs—and professional lives—working remotely instead of traveling to our offices—is a reminder of how much we value accessibility. And it emphasizes, too, how important accessibility is to bringing our best selves to work on a daily basis. It’s a subject close to my heart and an essential ingredient in Accenture’s wider inclusion, diversity and equality efforts.

In a new case study about our Accessibility Program you can find out how we help people work productively, whether from one of our offices, at home, at a client site or on the go. We believe that helping our people be the best they can be, personally and professionally, means they can seize opportunities, unleash their abilities and successfully manage their careers. It’s good for them, our clients and our communities.

Centered on accessibility

Our Accessibility Program is a fine example of inclusion and diversity at work. It brings together teams from our Procurement, Real Estate, Workplace and IT organizations to provide the best accessibility solutions for all, whatever their requirements.

We collaborate on initiatives that cover every aspect of an employee’s workday—including space, assistive technologies and devices, software, tools and more.

Accenture’s business is based around delivering on the promise of technology and human ingenuity for our clients. Using that combination to support an inclusive and accessible workplace is no better place to start. We now offer 11,000 assistive and preventative technologies, like polarized glasses and standing desks, and more than 75% Accenture applications are accessible.

Above all, we truly care about our people and want to help them succeed. We’ve seen what good looks like. The implementation of Accessibility Centers in Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America has empowered people with disabilities working in those locations.

It takes a village

Here’s some of the ways we solve accessibility challenges:

• We provide the right tools and technology: We developed an Accommodation Support Tool that enables our people to easily ask for assistive technology, flexible work arrangements, sign language interpreters, screen readers, and more. And we draw on the skills of our global IT team that has helped make Accenture’s applications currently at least 75% accessible, Accenture Labs that has come up with Accenture Virtual Express Lane (which offers multi-channel, remote technology support for people with disabilities), and partner relationships. For example, our collaboration with Microsoft involves providing ideas to increase the accessibility of Microsoft products, implementing early versions of accessibility features and sending feedback on the implementations.
• We evolve and innovate our approach: We bring together specialists in supporting persons with different abilities to create work environments that account for differences in mobility, hearing, vision and neurodiversity. For instance, we are running an initiative to establish at least one single-user, all-inclusive washroom in most of our Accenture space, where possible. We also run nine Accessibility Centers globally that focus on enablement and advisory services, collaborative technology research, exchange of ideas, recruiting and showcasing our capabilities related to accessibility to clients—including undertaking more than 300 demonstrations to date.
• We prioritize an inclusive culture: Our culture centers on fostering a mindset of inclusivity where accessibility is always considered. We continually review our recruitment processes to confirm we are inclusive. We’ve deployed a disability inclusion leadership development program and a suite of online training courses around education and sensitization, Accenture policies, assistive technologies and flexible work arrangements. What’s more, we’ve created a champion network of more than 36,000 disability inclusion champions in 52 countries to collaborate, advance initiatives and promote allyship—it’s one of the reasons we were recognized by Disability:IN as a Best Place to Work in 2021. Our team undertakes visioning and solutioning to make sure initiatives align with our Disability Council priorities.

More enhancements to our Accessibility Program are underway. We want to be a pioneer in disability inclusion and I believe our accessibility efforts are not only reimagining what’s possible, but also helping us get there.