International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2021
Friday, December 3, is International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD). Recognized by the United Nations, this day is an opportunity for us to renew and deepen our focus on disability inclusion and building an accessible tomorrow.
Pandemic Exacerbated Inequities
The global pandemic highlighted and deepened inequities relating to persons with disability. This year’s IDPD is putting the spotlight on leaders and people who are working to ensure that persons with disabilities are not left behind in a post-COVID-19 world.
The disabled community was one of the hardest hit by the pandemic. This group, which represents 15% of the world’s population or approximately one billion people, is half as likely to be employed compared to their nondisabled peers. These are people who have the capacity and desire to contribute if only allowed the technology and access to do so. The gap is most prominent in low and middle income countries.
Making technology available and accessible is one way to close that gap. Technology can be the difference between failure and success in school, work and life.
Enabling Sustainable Inclusivity
Businesses, governments and other organizations can enable sustainable inclusivity.
Investing in accessibility not only has a huge impact in health, social inclusion and quality of life. It also makes good economic sense. As more organizations invest in integrating accessibility, new market and employment opportunities will be unlocked. It’s a win-win situation that increases access for those who need it and gives businesses access to a larger talent pool, market opportunities and innovative thinking.
Now is the time to redouble our efforts, prioritize and invest to ensure access to technology is not a barrier in the post-pandemic world. Below are a few ideas and resources to get started:
- Demonstrate your commitment to disability inclusion by implementing a company-wide accessibility policy or initiative that firmly places disability inclusion on the agenda.
- Get senior leaders to buy in and support embedding inclusion into the fabric of your organization.
- Support your workforce to learn about disability inclusion. At VMware, we rolled out an accessibility advocate program to support our company’s accessibility and disability inclusion education.
- Employee Resource Groups (ERG) are a great channel to promote education and raise awareness of the value of an inclusive workforce and celebrate the contribution of people of all abilities. If you do not have a disability employee resource group in your organization, IDPD is the perfect day to launch one.
These are just some of the ways individuals and organizations can get involved. December 3’s IDPD reminds us that accessibility and inclusion are important every day. Together, we can commit to no one left behind.
