How people with disability are defying the notion of ‘unconventional’ at the workplace

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Bani Walia believes that disability is the inability to see people as more. She was born with a condition where the radius bone and thumb in her right hand, along with the supporting bone in the left thumb, were missing.

“However, I did not let this deter me as I believe that life is all about having a purpose and creating meaningful experiences,” she told Moneycontrol.

Growing up with supportive friends and family, Walia joined digital consulting major Publicis Sapient three and a half years ago and is currently part of the policy and compliance group in the People Success Team.

She has been in different roles and continues to learn, unlearn and make mistakes, and yet she always feels empowered. Walia is among a few people with disability of PwD professionals making a mark in their respective industries and showcasing India Inc’s increased focus on inclusivity in the workplace.

“My only advice to people with disabilities is to embrace their differences and see the strength in their abilities. Having a positive mindset and being an advocate for oneself can unlock a mountain of opportunities,” Walia said.

Naren Sahai would have been around 16 years old when she realised her right eye's sight had dimmed to near darkness. Moreover, “I would fall over while standing,” she told Moneycontrol.

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Presently in a senior role at the global delivery services (GDS) section of professional services firm EY, Sahai is exploring her interests and expanding her insights on how to make a valuable contribution to the world.

EY’s efforts toward hiring a neuro-divergent talent pool are one significant initiative and this year so far, it hired seven such candidates, five in its assurance practice who will be working on core auditing roles and two candidates in the client technology service function.

“We started by conducting a spectrum analysis that helped us understand each candidate's social, communication, behavioural and learning needs; this helped us understand their strengths and work towards building those,” said Jaya Virwani, global diversity, ethics and inclusiveness (DEI) leader at EY GDS.

One of EY's founders, Arthur Young, had a hearing and visual disability. Inspired by this, EY has been working to create an environment where everyone feels like they belong and does their best work.

After earning a diploma from a special Odisha government-run industrial training institute focused on PwD, and having learnt technical skills like welding and drilling, Silu Dash from Nayagarh district is excited to start work at STL Tech’s optical fibre cable plant.

Sharing his joinery, Dash said he was provided with an interpreter for the interview, which helped her communicate with the panel. “The onboarding team explained to us about the various accessibility features at the plant, and provided tutorials on how to use them,” he said.

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With the intent to not just do the right thing by hiring PwD employees but doing it in the right way as well by offering a safe environment, the optical fibre and cables firm started by recruiting five people with disabilities, Dash among them, who started work at the plant in December.

“We have started small, but soon aim at going all out and focusing on offering a holistic environment,” said Anjali Byce, CHRO, STL. The company also plans on incorporating Braille in its training, creating appropriate pathways, adjusting the height of access card readers, creating appropriate ramps, and many more such initiatives.

“We do realise that we are at the very starting line and there’s a long journey ahead of us but we are fully prepared and excited for it,” Byce told Moneycontrol.

One of the biggest and persistent challenges for PwD is accessibility. While Publicis Sapient has screen narrator software installed in its systems, the company said it goes the extra mile to provide its people with the latest solutions or customised systems that will enable them to do their jobs with ease.

It also has a flagship event ‘HOWATHON,’ where participating teams are led by women technologists, to drive awareness.

“With the current year's theme around accessibility, the idea is to drive an inclusive mindset among our people by encouraging them to think through various aspects of accessibility when it comes to building digital solutions,” said Vieshaka L Dutta, director of DEI, Publicis Sapient India.

IT company Pegasystem’s global talent attraction organisation is empowered by a dedicated full-time diversity talent attraction consultant, whose sole responsibility is to enrich the pipeline of PwD candidates for all open roles.

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Further, Pega continues to make adjustments to its office environments based on the needs of PwD employees. For example, it recently hired an employee with a visual disability causing them to rely on a screen reader.

“In such instances, we have made accommodations by improving the frequency of describing visuals during meetings, including descriptions of images in emails,” said Deepak Visweswaraiah, a vice-president at Pegasystems India.