Timeline Five steps to creatIng a more inclusive telecom sector

TIMELINE

FIVE STEPS TO

This month, we reached out to Karen Smit, Head of Accessibility at Vodacom South Africa, and asked her to tell us about the five most pressing steps that need to be taken to foster a more inclusive telecom sector.

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Recognise disabled persons as a viable consumer segment More than 15% – or about 1.3 billion – of people in the world have a disability. Disabled persons want to be recognised as consumers and not as charity cases, as they access and pay for technology and services like everyone else. Together with friends and family, disabled persons have a combined spending power of $13tn, proving why this section of society shouldn’t be overlooked. Embrace systemic inclusion When technology companies include disabled consumers as part of their company’s diversity and inclusion strategy, it benefits both the company and disabled persons. Don’t treat accessibility as a one-off project; embed inclusion into your company’s systems, structures, processes and roadmaps, with business units sharing the responsibility to promote the inclusion of disabled persons.

FIVE STEPS TO

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Personal leadership CEOs who visibly care about everyone in society can play a huge role in encouraging inclusion. Research shows that most CEOs do not want to share their own, lived disability experiences or the experiences of family or friends. Silence on the topic will discourage inclusion, but when CEOs have authentic conversations about disability inclusion, their personal commitment has the ability to inspire their leadership teams to do the same. Purpose-led Purpose-led organisations embracing inclusion have a clearer and deeper understanding of disabled customers’ needs as they design solutions that take the challenges of the disabled community into account. Such an approach aims to provide technology and services that are of real value and benefit communities, not developing products just to make a profit without understanding their impact on consumers. Disability Employment It should be recognised that disabled persons are both employees and consumers. Disability employment serves as a powerful catalyst to expand inclusion of consumers. Although most companies indicate their support for inclusion, only 4% focus on ensuring that their technology and services cater for the needs of consumers with disabilities. Greater disability employment can change that.