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Heralding a silent dawn

Tomorrow is International Day of Disabled Persons. ANAND SANKAR finds that the IT industry has woken up to the potential of the disabled

PHOTO: K. GOPINATHAN

IN THE MAINSTREAM Ankit Jindal and Ranjini Ramanujam, who are partially visually impaired and hearing impaired respectively, say the training process really made it easy to settle into their workplace

Tomorrow is yet another International Day of Disabled Persons. While familiar issues will dominate the day, it is interesting that in the year when the focus is on access to information and communication technologies, the same sector is heralding a silent dawn for disabled persons in the city. Activists for years have been clamouring for equal opportunities for disabled persons and today it looks like corporate India is waking up to it, and is realising that it comes with its own advantages.

UN decision

It is 14 years since the United Nations decided to observe a day for the disabled and today Ranjini Ramanujam, who suffers from congenital profound sensori-neural hearing loss, finds herself with a white collar job at Infosys's business process outsourcing (BPO) arm. In spite of her disability, Ramanujam studied in a regular school and graduated with a B.Com. with a CIC (certificate in computing) from IGNOU. An avid sports enthusiast, she has been a National Champion for the Deaf in badminton and chess, in addition to winning the Arjuna, Rajyotsava and Ekalavya awards. She has worked in two other organisations before but says that the experience she is having here is different.

"When I joined here, the support and encouragement from the human resources personnel for people like us was tremendous. Then of course my team who were supportive and understanding. For example, when we used to have discussions, the team leader used to write things and pass it on, and if I didn't understand something it would be repeated," says Ramanujam, who is designated a Process Executive.

It all started with an access audit at Infosys BPO which now claims to have 101 employees with various disabilities on its payroll. The company says after the audit it decided to reach out to the community as part of its overall HR policy called Celebrating Diversity. The necessary infrastructure to support the disabled employees came first — low-floor cabs, door drop and pick up, toilets and tailored emergency drills. Then it was time to forge a human connection. HR trainers experienced in interacting with disabled people were recruited to conduct the training programmes and spread awareness among other employees.

It is said the BPO industry has a definite advantage for disabled people because it is a "non-voice process" and there are various tools to communicate with such as email and SMS. Also there are various software tools that can be used to work around disabilities. This is best illustrated by the case of Ankit Jindal, who suffers from the progressive disorder retinitis pigmentosa, which has rendered him almost completely visionless. And his vision is going to get worse with time. He now works with the aid of a software called Jaws that does speech-text-speech functions.

Straight from campus

"I came straight from campus. The first day was a moment for achievement. I was earlier interacting with a few select people but now I had the whole world. The induction went on well and the trainers made me comfortable. I was not alien to computers but the problem was since I lost my vision progressively, I had a steep learning curve to pass. I had to adapt to Jaws. I had role models in my family and I was prepared for this all of my life. Once I came to grips with Jaws, it was just a matter of learning to use Excel and Office with it," he says.

The challenge for the company lay in that each disabled person was different, needing the right kind of support. Teams were trained to use sign language. Emergency drills were rehearsed, with buddies assigned for disabled people who would be the first to evacuate. And to build lasting partnerships, street plays involving both disabled and the others were organised.

"We have a diversity policy. It's all about how we will encourage and ensure people from different races and sexes work together. And including disabled people was a part of that," says Nandita Gurjar, Vice President and Head, Human Resources, Infosys BPO.

Long process

"When we started with disabled people we didn't expect it to become a long process. First, we had to map the different kinds of work and where they can work and where they can't. We mapped over 200 processes and realised we cannot compromise the client, this is not charity."

Gurjar admits that it was initially difficult to convince managers to accept disabled people in their teams because of doubts over their performance. But finally awareness and the enthusiasm displayed by the new entrants won them over. "First people said not in my team. So we roped in those who were more positive. In a floor, initially, there were not more than two disabled people. But the workforce here is young and cool they soon accepted them easily; there was no pity. These are not people with disabilities: we have disabled them. It is important that they get their self-esteem back. In recruitment tests 17 of them beat SLA (service level agreement) requirements. There is now a confidence to do more. And attrition rate among the disabled employees is zero."

There are a number of NGOs working with the disabled in the city and corporates are tapping into their resources. Bulletin boards at the NGOs are used to used announce recruitment and then the NGOs forward the applications to the respective companies.

"We have to get the disabled people to the mainstream today. The social concept is coming to people and they have an open outlook. It is good that the BPOs are recruiting disabled people but you have to first get them up to that level of education first. But schools are inaccessible to start with. There is no water, toilets and most girls who are disabled don't go to school," says Albina Shankar, Acting Director, Mobility India.

The Association For People With Disabilities (APD) says that its has been working with Infosys, ITC Infotech and IBM. It conducts a computer training program and exposes disabled people to new ideas by inviting people from the field to give talks. "There is a general positive feeling all around. We need to try and see how it evolves now and help them understand disabled people better. They must not be looked at differently, they are like any other people," says V.S. Basavaraju, Director, APD.

Access first

The first step towards integrating disabled employees is getting the physical infrastructure ready for them. And this is where the fear of expense puts a stop to the idea. Many companies contacted were all for an equal opportunity policy but said they were helpless because they were in rented premises and couldn't get the necessary infrastructure ready.

Anand Prakash, an architect, says that today only a few hospitals even have ramps for wheelchair access. "Primarily, every building should have a ramp. But the facility, which should be there by default in hospitals, also cannot be seen. You need separate toilets for the disabled. There are lots of codes to be followed but the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike byelaws stipulate only wheelchair access. There is a code for toilets and staircases because that is where most accidents happen. There are no local codes but there is a standard book by the Bureau of Indian Standards, which has a lot of recommendations for user-friendly buildings. There is no point in just having a plan, it must be implemented. The implementation must start with government infrastructure. Can a wheelchair-bound person get into public transport, bus, auto or taxi today?"

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