5 Reasons Why AT Is Key In Inclusive Workforce Development Plans

When you think of making accommodations for employees with a disability, many employers tend to think about physical adaptations to the workplace, such as converting documents to braille or needing sign language interpreters for those that are deaf or hard of hearing. There is no doubt that these are undeniably important. Still, as the world of work evolves and technology becomes smarter, there is every reason to start making accommodations by thinking about Digital solutions rather than buildings and printed materials.

There are many reasons why this is important, and here are five of them

Digital Pervades

Digital technologies permeate and are embedded in every part of our daily life, including the workplace. As a result, digital technologies can help with most aspects of employment. Travelling to work, including wayfinding and buying tickets, communicating with people around you or in the office, planning tasks and executing them well and even having control over the rooms in which we work. The different features and functions are all readily available through one device, making it easier to do everything you want and need to do quickly and efficiently.

Cost-effective

Many Digital AT are low cost — under $100 for computers and often less than $10 for phones or tablets. In fact, many features and functions that make the workplace accessible are already on the devices you use at work. Integrated into the operating system or productivity tools. Speech recognition is a great example where you can dictate and manage your device just by using your voice. Text to speech to read out everything on the screen is equally powerful. Both are free with your device.

Easy to implement

Buying and installing digital products is amazingly fast and easy compared to physical products. You can purchase them online via a website, device marketplace, or app store, install them within minutes, and use them within a day. Many products come with trial versions to ensure that the employee is happy with them and that they are fit for purpose. Most will have online training readily available. If you want to act quickly, then Digital is designed for that.

Familiar

One of the reasons why Digital AT is so successful in the workplace is that it feels very familiar to the user. Most will have been using technology similar to what you use for work in school, college or university. That familiarity makes it easy for people to adopt digital AT. If they can use Microsoft office or buy online, they usually have the basic skills to use AT

Discrete

Digital assistive technologies are very popular with many people with a disability because they are, in most cases, well hidden. In most cases, there is no way for anyone around you to know that you are using AT and if you don’t want anyone to know, no reason to tell them.

For these and many other reasons, digital AT is ideally placed to be your starting point for access, not an add-on or afterthought but at the heart of getting the very best from employees with disabilities.

First published in Canada by Distictability.ca at https://distinctability.ca/news-and-events/f/5-reasons-why-at-is-key-in-inclusive-workforce-development-plans