Diversity is having a seat at the table, inclusion is having a voice at the table, and belonging is having that voice be heard – Liz Fosslien
At Societe Generale, we not only believe in being inclusive but also in enabling all our employees to reach their full potential. This includes working on challenges that our PWD colleagues face daily and making their workspaces accessible and easily navigable.
Today, 4 January, is World Braille Day. A day that is significant because it commemorates the birthday of Louis Braille, the creator of the Braille writing system – a system that uses raised dots that can be read by the fingers of visually challenged persons. For over 150 years, it has enabled millions of visually impaired persons to take control of their lives. On this day, we aim to highlight the small steps that we have taken towards making our visually impaired colleagues feel at ease in the workplace. Upholding our commitment to inclusivity, we initiated a journey with VSHESH, to make the workplace more inclusive for our PWD employees by undertaking a series of infrastructural changes.
“We started our journey to enable inclusivity for our PWD staff with one intern with visual impairment. We learnt a lot through his journey and that helped us become aware of our unconscious biases and myths. We have come a long way from then – from having braille signs at important places, floor markings for easy traversing, text to speech enablement among others. We also have policies in place to help PWD staff procure hardware/software that will make their workplace more accessible”.
Infrastructure Upgrades
“I am very glad to see the baby steps we have taken to include more staff with visual impairment in our work force. It is our firm belief that staff with any impairment including visual – contribute very meaningfully and in an equal manner as other staff to our mission, goals, and day to day priorities. We strive to work in completely inclusive teams, while laying the foundations for the success of our visually impaired staff”.
The initiatives undertaken over the past three years are just the beginning, and our commitment towards the cause is as high as ever. We have more milestones to achieve and we seek out your experiences, perspectives, and recommendations to aid us along the way.
