Assistive Technology Service to support recruitment, retention and compliance

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1 Assistive Technology Service the way we do it Assistive Technology Service to support recruitment, retention and compliance A Capgemini solution for building disability confidence in your organisation Enhancing productivity by adapting to your employees needs Transforming your workplace environment with Assistive Technology in partnership with Capgemini supports your regulatory compliance and sets you apart as a disability confident employer for the UK s top talent. Attracting the best people for the job Is your organisation equipped to comply with the UK Equality Act? Or are there barriers preventing people with disabilities from making a valuable contribution to your business?

2 Assistive Technology empowers and supports people with disabilities It is estimated that 23.9% of disabled people in work in the UK are in management or professional occupations. Furthermore, 1 in 3 Europeans aged have a disability. These statistics 1 are important. Why? Because more and more people in the workforce are over the age of 50, while 2% of the working age population (UK) becomes disabled every year. Experience and long-held knowledge is a vital asset in today s workplace. Capgemini s Assistive Technology offering ensures your organisation has the right strategy and support services in place for implementing the hardware and software changes you need to ensure all your staff make the fullest contribution. Estimates suggest that 62% of all workers 1 would benefit from disability-related software access features, so the benefits are clearly wide ranging. With the support of the Capgemini Assistive Technology team, your organisation has an opportunity to integrate IT services with HR policies and make lifechanging adaptations that meet the needs of a fully inclusive workforce. Ensuring compliance and cutting costs Assistive Technology is an umbrella term encompassing assistive, adaptive and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities. Assistive Technology enables people to perform tasks they were formerly unable to do, or increase their productivity. This is achieved by providing enhancements to, or changing methods of interacting with, the technology they need to do their work. 1 Business Disability Forum 2

3 Assistive Technology Service the way we do it Accessible IT can improve productivity across a fully inclusive workforce From text telephones and accessible keyboards, to large print, Braille and speech recognition software, your Assistive Technology environment will promote greater independence and productivity. Failing to implement accessibility measures that allow people with disabilities to work safely and efficiently will have a detrimental impact on your business. For example, employees are entitled to unlimited compensation if reasonable adjustments are not made by the employer. Accessibility measures include making your business applications and external web-sites Accessible to people with disabilities. There are a number of business-critical reasons for implementing a programme of Assistive Technology: Legal responsibility l Employers are required by law to make reasonable adjustments to workplace technology l Tribunals will determine this by size of employer you have no say over the matter l Claiming you don t have the money to make adjustments is not an excuse Reputation l Attract the best talent, keep it and maximise it l Don t become known as an organisation forced by the courts to rewrite your web-site and applications l Exposure through tribunals makes for bad PR 3

4 Our services range from oneoff technology assessments, to help desk support as part of a managed service Costs l DAL (Disability Absence Leave) can be a huge productivity cost but you can help to avoid this with Assistive Technology Lost business l 83% of disabled customers will move away from a supplier that does not provide an accessible solution Market pressures l Pressure from powerful global entities working with Business Disability Forum (BDF) and their Technology Taskforce is a strong force for change Untapped workforce l With 1 in every 8 UK employees 1 having a disability, few organisations can afford to ignore these accessibility needs. The journey to Assistive Technology You may have already invested in assistive, adaptive or rehabilitative devices but need help in deploying and using them to their full potential. Or perhaps you have yet to start your Assistive Technology journey. Whatever stage you are at, Capgemini has a proven portfolio of services that can help. Your organisation can access these services either on an ad hoc basis, for example for one-off healthchecks, or on a continuing basis for ongoing enhancement and support [see figure overleaf]. From advising you on the level of accessibility across your organisation to educating your own developers on the accessibility changes they need to make to business applications and ongoing accessibility support, our Assistive Technology team provides support and guidance to users of hardware or software assistive technologies. 4

5 Healthcheck Clarify current status n Accessibility assessment (high level or in depth) n One-off or regular proactive assessments Assistive technology services Managed service Enhance accessibility n Knowledge transfer & education for developers n Test systems for accessibility n Configuration of assistive technology products Enhance end user experience n Ongoing healthchecks n Continuously enhance accessibility n Product configuration, support & training n Enhance end user experience We provide accessibility testing based on standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to ensure minimal accessibility defects on IT releases. We can also help you prepare for any Assistive Technology accreditation you are working towards, such as WCAG/BS8878 in the UK or Section 508 in the US. Other services include: l Testing new corporate applications systems for accessibility l Help with research into the most appropriate products in the market l Working closely with Occupational Health teams to evaluate products they recommend l Testing new accessibility products against existing product suites l Production of documentation in support of new accessibility products l Configuration and scripting of assistive tools to enhance application usability 5

6 Accessible design to support people with disabilities benefits everyone l Removal from site of any Assistive Technology hardware identified as obsolete, defunct or no longer required l Licensing and support arrangements for all your accessibility products l Procurement of accessibility consumables, such as keyboard, mice and other peripherals. Adding up the benefits Your Assistive Technology programme will empower and support people with disabilities, and its benefits will also extend much further across your organisation. That s because good, accessible design yields great rewards to other users. For example, automation introduced to get accessibility users around excessive screen-based activity cuts down on a huge amount of manual processing time. This time saving is equally applicable to all users. In addition to improved levels of productivity across the workforce, Capgemini s Assistive Technology portfolio adds value in other areas: l Regulatory compliance avoid the penalties of non compliance l Fewer lost working days optimise the working health of people with disabilities l Fewer work-related injuries less physical strain results from greater automation l Reduced cost of ill health retirement retain talented people long into their careers l More efficient use of people increase job satisfaction with timely reasonable adjustments. 6

7 Organisations that are disability smart help their people work effectively under a wide range of personal circumstances Capgemini and Assistive Technology Capgemini has already helped one of the UK s biggest government departments tailor its standard IT services and deploy specialist equipment and software as part of a broader Assistive Technology programme. This equipment includes voice control to help staff with motor disabilities minimise use of computer keyboards and the mouse and software that reads onscreen text instructions for visually impaired staff. Our Assistive Technology team is adept at making accessibility part of the requirements definition for the design of new systems. We ensure that our clients IT accessibility services adapt to continuously improve the user experience. We are a member of the Business Disability Forum and committed to employing people with disabilities. We make every effort to adapt our business to different needs and to enable people to work with us effectively and enjoyably under a wide range of personal circumstances. This has enabled us to achieve the Positive About Disabled People Two Ticks accreditation for the 5th year running. 7

8 Assistive Technology Service the way we do it About Capgemini With almost 140,000 people in over 40 countries, Capgemini is one of the world s foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services. The Group reported 2013 global revenues of EUR 10.1 billion. Together with its clients, Capgemini creates and delivers business and technology solutions that fit their needs and drive the results they want. A deeply multicultural organisation, Capgemini has developed its own way of working, the Collaborative Business Experience TM, and draws on Rightshore, its worldwide delivery model. Learn more about us at About Business Disability Forum Business Disability Forum (BDF) is a world-leading not-for-profit membership body bringing together business and the public sector to build disability smart organisations. BDF is unique globally, with more than 20 years experience of promoting, shaping and celebrating better business performance for disabled people. BDF Partners and Members employ almost 20% of the UK workforce and, together, seek to remove the barriers between public and private organisations and disabled people. BDF s work with business shows that organisations which are disability smart are those that have a whole-organisation approach to improving their disability performance. For more details contact: Vasan Srinivasan, Delivery Director, Tel: , vasan.srinivasan@capgemini.com Mick Halliday, Propositions Director, Tel: , mick.halliday@capgemini.com The information contained in this document is proprietary Capgemini. All rights reserved. Rightshore is a trademark belonging to Capgemini.