Tech firms adopt differently-abled-friendly softwares

The differently abled might be making up merely 1% of the total IT and technology workforce. But to appear diverse and distinct, firms in the city are leaving no stone unturned for transforming themselves into “disable friendly” companies.

Apart from putting up ramps to incorporating Braille lettering on doors to building restrooms for the disabled, companies are quickly adopting various softwares and technologies that can assist in the smooth functioning of their visually, hearing and physically impaired workforce.

Technology can be of tremendous help for every differently able person, says Chandrasekar Krishnamurthy, vice-president, global service, EMC India.

“We have installed Jaws screen reader for the visually impaired employees. With the emergence of assistive technologies, a bridge has been built that connects differently abled with their environment, helping them enjoy the same opportunities as others,” says Krishnamurthy.

Companies in the city are in the process of adopting various assistive technologies like Braille business card readers, magnifiers, tactile training materials, talking cash counting machines (all for the visually impaired); and voice to text and lip reading softwares, automatic captioning for the hearing impaired. For those with physical disabilities, virtual desktops and laptops with speech recognition softwares are being adopted.

Experts say hiring differently abled helps bring in diversity to the organisation, since these people are able to perform certain task better than others.

For instance, diversity and inclusion lead at SAP Labs, Sheenam Ohrie, says people with autism bring a lot in terms of their memory and ability to do routine tasks in a limited time span.

“If an non-autistic person needs three hours to complete a routine task, an autistic person will do it in just an hour. This enhances productivity and output.”

While visually challenged professionals are important in tech firms for testing and validating new products, and deciding if the products are compatible for the blind, the hearing impaired can be trained to undertake tasks in the generator room, where the sound levels cannot be tolerated by others, say experts.

Gregory Akers, senior vice-president, Cisco Systems, says differently abled can also be very good technical service engineers, whose job is to handle customer queries regarding company products.

“There are no particular jobs as such earmarked for specific people, since it all depends on their capabilities. All jobs are open for all,” says
Akers.