Employers for Change: Reasonable Accommodations

Employers for Change is an Open Doors Initiative programme dedicated to helping businesses of all sizes navigate the world of disability, inclusion and confidence. Through engaging conversations with experts, we tackle common misconceptions and dive deep into the latest technology, policy and best practices that can transform your company's culture. 

In this episode, Mohamed is joined by Eoin O'Herlihy from Access Consultancy to discuss how the implementation of reasonable accommodations can aid the inclusion of individuals with disabilities in the workplace.

Eoin is the Managing Director of O’ Herlihy Access Consultancy (OHAC). He is a recognised leader in the field of accessibility and Universal Design. He has been an advocate for improving standards in accessibility and disability inclusion for over 20 years. The driving force behind Eoin’s work has been the lived experience of disability of a close family member.

Eoin founded OHAC in 2007. He previously worked in the National Disability Authority as Built Environment Accessibility Coordinator. The Company has grown significantly since its early days. It now offers a comprehensive range of access advisory services, from accessible organisation consultancy to design and construction Universal Design and building compliance advisory services, to training services for a wide range of clients in Ireland and Internationally. 

Eoin recognises that the barriers faced by people with disabilities and other user groups come in many forms (physical (e.g. public realm), attitudinal, technological, communication, transport, and employment) and aims to support organisations around the world  to remove these barriers and create a more inclusive society. 

OHAC are currently working with a number of national and international public sector and corporate clients developing frameworks and strategies to promote inclusive workplaces. Part of our role includes: Benchmarking; creating roadmaps; stakeholder engagement; General and tailored disability awareness training (e.g. HR; Products and services; Inclusive workplaces; Technology and Buildings and Estates); Audits of existing workplaces; advice on new offices; general advice on Universal Design.

Employers for Change is a programme of the Open Doors Initiative, funded by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. The service empowers employers with all the information and advice needed to hire, employ, manage and retain staff with disabilities.

Contact Employers for Change at info@employersforchange.ie or check our website for more information

Transcript

Mohamed: Welcome to the Employers for Change podcast. My name is Mohamed Sahid Camara. Employers for Change is a program of the Open Doors Initiative dedicated to helping businesses of all sizes navigate the world of disability inclusion and confidence. Through engaging conversations with experts, dynamic organization, and inspiring individuals, we will tackle common misconceptions, explore reasonable accommodation, and dive deep into the latest technology, policy, and best practices that can transform your company's culture.

Today, I am joined by Eoin O’Herlihy from Access Consultancy, to discuss how reasonable accommodation can aid the inclusion of individuals with disability in the workplace.

Owen, can you please tell? my audience a bit about yourself. Yeah, thanks 

Eoin: very much, Mohamed. Delighted to be here. I have been involved in accessibility for over 20 years, and I have lived experience of when my, my mother had a stroke about 20 years ago, since she acquired a disability. So that's how I first got involved in the whole area of access.

So since then, I, I've been kind of, Passionate about making society more accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities. And I did some research in the area around accessibility. And then I worked with the National Disability Authority for about four years. And in 2007, I set up a Early Access Consultancy.

So we're a consultancy and training provider in all areas of accessibility. So we We work in the built environment. We work at working with companies, making, trying to make their services accessible. Uh, we work with employers to ensure that their workplaces are disability inclusive. Um, and we do a lot of training and [00:02:00] awareness.

So we do things like disability awareness training. We do technical training for HR departments. We work with facilities managers to do training on making the built environment accessible. And then we work with service providers, uh, to ensure that. They, when they are looking at their services for customers with disabilities or visitors that the whole visitor experience is accessible.

So what we, what we're trying to do at OHAC. Is I suppose look at every touch point that someone with a disability may interact with a company or an organization so it can be a government department. It could be a public body. It could be a private company and try to ensure that they address accessibility.

So I suppose work. We're a firm believer that accessibility goes across everything you do within an organization and we want to try and support organizations to, I suppose, make changes in, in all aspects of accessibility. So that's a little bit about what we do, uh, and where, what we're about and how we, how we got set up and stuff like that.

Mohamed: This is an incredible journey you've been through and so [00:03:00] inspiring from what you've been saying. And In this context, what does reasonable accommodation in the workplace means for people? Can you please break down for those who have no clue? 

Eoin: Yeah, no problem. I suppose. And I suppose it's kind of, it sounds very technical and very, you know, you know, people kind of say, well, reasonable accommodations is sometimes like a scary word, but I suppose.

Look, reasonable accommodation in the workplace is about making adjustments or modifications for people with disabilities to enable them to bring their whole selves to work and to be able to, I suppose, participate within the, within the workplace. And I think it's, it's, it's about making sure that every part of the job is accessible or does allow for accommodations.

Accommodations can be as small as, you know, having a sign language interpreter for, for meetings or. Ensuring that notes are sent out in advance of the meeting for people to maybe, they may need more time at the meeting to, um, to, to, to get up to speed with what's going on. So, it's about things like, you know, sending out, [00:04:00] sending out meeting notes in advance.

Or it could be someone, if they have a bad back, it could be providing an ergonomic chair. Someone may have dexterity issues with their hands, so it could be providing a larger keyboard. Or someone may have a visual impairment and may need a screen reading technology and stuff like that. So. Reasonable accommodations, as I said, are modifications and adjustments to the workplace to allow people who may have accessibility barriers to bring their, bring their full selves to work and allow them to fully participate within the workplace.

Mohamed: I think that is a very good description of reasonable accommodation and it will boil down the brain for those who cannot understand it properly. But like, um, from what you've been saying, um, there is also a report from India that. Also mentioned that reasonable accommodation can sometimes don't cost a penny, you know, with this and your experience in working with businesses, how crucial is it for businesses in Ireland to understand and implement reasonable [00:05:00] accommodation into their policies?

I suppose 

Eoin: from, from a legal point of view, it's, you know, you have a legal requirement, and I think we're not talking about legal requirements today. You, you're, you've said it nicely, Mohammed, that it, it can cost noting. Um, I think it's about culture change. Um, and culture change is looking at things like the importance of equality, diversity, and inclusion within the workplace.

And we see that in all aspects of society, that it's changing massively. So. By shifting the culture or changing people's attitudes towards accessibility or inclusivity within the workplace for people with disabilities. That doesn't cost anything. It just costs a change of mindset, a change of how people think about how we integrate people with disabilities and so on.

But most reasonable accommodations can be done with very little cost. So it's all about things like training and awareness. So making people aware of the, you know, the accommodations that people need. So let's use an example. So most, most line managers within the workplace, [00:06:00] if someone with a disability.

Comes to them and says, look, I need the following reason accommodations. By sitting down with that person and having a policy or a procedure in place, and by the line manager having an understanding of what the policy and procedure is in place, it's going to be very easy for that, that, that, that line manager to implement the change.

The problem is that the line manager is unaware that there is a policy in place. They're unaware that there is, um, a policy in place. Uh, procedure in place and that's where the real challenges challenge comes because they don't actually know that, you know, the HR department have these policies or practices in place that can accommodate a person really easy.

So I think that's, you know, by changing or moving away from the legal side of things and and and moving over towards the cultural side of things, then, and I suppose, enhanced diversity, but enhanced inclusion within the workplace. It costs very little. It's changing the mindset is, is the real, real cost and that doesn't cost anything, you know.

People don't realize that attitudinal barriers are the biggest barriers [00:07:00] faced by people with disabilities, whether it's in a visitor experience, whether it's in customer services or within the area of employment. How are we going to overcome those attitudinal barriers? Education and awareness. Buy in from the top leaders, like leadership commitment to accessibility, changing people's mindsets, employee resource groups around accessibility.

But, you know, if we talk about what are, what are crucial elements for businesses to, to, to understand and implement reasonable accommodations, awareness raising and training will be the key, one of the key things, but also having the right policies and procedures in place. So. We go back to the example of the line manager.

If the line manager has, has undergone training, if they're aware that the policies and practices and procedures are in place, it's much easier for them to do their job and it's much easier for them as a result to provide the reasonable accommodations. 

Mohamed: So, um, looking at, um, your area of expertise in designing accessibility for, [00:08:00] um, for businesses to be able to implement these, um, Accommodation for individuals with disabilities.

What development or trends do you foresee that will enable employers to really implement reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities in the workplace? I 

Eoin: think there's 

Mohamed: about 

Eoin: five or six kind of trends at the moment that are, that are really important. Um, one of them we've just talked about is the increased understanding and awareness.

So the importance of training and development. So, you know, we have a HR department, particularly our people in talent department. In particular, they'll have a learning and development person who's responsible for learning and development within the organization. So one thing we would say to companies or organizations is identify what, what, what accessibility training requirements that are required as part of the learning and development program.

So, for example, disability awareness training, we've already mentioned. More, more, more tailored training for the [00:09:00] HR department around one about disability awareness training, but the second thing about how do you create that disability inclusive workplace, recruitment, disclosure, retention, reasonable accommodation, performance management, so having more technical training for.

Um, HR departments, but it's not just the HR department. It could be the, you know, the IT department who are responsible for websites. It could be the facilities management team who are responsible for the real estate or the built environment, or it could be leadership, you know, leadership need training around changing their attitudes, which you just mentioned, or, or improving the culture within the organization, becoming that.

you know, fully inclusive employer. So that's one area I think learning and development or training and awareness. But awareness raising could be things like one hour CPDs at lunchtime or a town hall or, you know, bringing a guest speaker in to talk about the barriers faced within the workplace. So there's lots of ways you can create that training and awareness.

I think the second area would be the role of employee resource groups, which I've already mentioned as well in that. [00:10:00] We, we, you know, there's a lot, equality, diversity, inclusion is a, is a, is a major area that has allowed us to enhance accessibility. So we're finding now that we're working with companies that, that have set up an employee resource group around accessibility, but are unaware of how they can make change.

So they're unaware about what they should be doing to, I suppose, embed accessibility within the organization. But they, I suppose, are the voice of people with disabilities representing their company. So they should be working, you know, liaising with the HR department and we can talk about that in a few minutes if we, if you like, I think the use of technology, um, and the use of assistive technology is going to, it's going to make a massive, is making a massive impact for, I suppose, um, for people with disabilities within the workplace.

So technology is becoming so advanced, like, you know, your, your use of your, your computers, your, your mobile phones. You've got so much new software out there that can assist people with disabilities within the workplace. I think the, the advent [00:11:00] of flexible working arrangements, so we now have hybrid working, we've allowed people from working from home, that's had a massive impact again for people with disabilities.

You know, if the bus may be very, public transport may be very busy from eight to nine o'clock. But having those flexible working arrangements where someone can 10 o'clock, or they can work from home two days a week, the other area which we haven't really talked about is the whole area of support services and networks.

So, you know, 10 years ago, when I was working in accessibility, we didn't have employers for change. We didn't have any best practice toolkits or guidelines around making the workplace accessible to meet the needs of people with disabilities. Now we can go, you know, we can do a research and we can find various national and international toolkits around making workplaces accessible to meet the needs of people with disabilities within the workplace.

We've lots of good guidelines. We can go on LinkedIn and find five podcasts or five workshops that are happening tomorrow around creating disability [00:12:00] inclusive workplace. So I think the, you know, the, the. The advent of, uh, the support services like your own organization has been really beneficial for people with disabilities.

And my one recommendation I have when I do my training is I point people in the direction of employers for change, employability. I provide them with guidelines and resources that are out there. Maybe it's a UK guideline or it's an Irish guideline. But we just need to get the information out there.

There's so much information there. It's just getting it out there. And I think then we'll have future trends on legal frameworks and policies and stuff. We're seeing, you know, we point people to like the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. Again, they have good information about on their website to support employers around meeting.

legal requirements like the Employment Equality Act, reasonable accommodations for employers, or the Equal Status Act, reasonable accommodation for customers and service providers. So, lots of different changes from, you know, training and development, technology, flexible working [00:13:00] arrangements, and then, I suppose, you know, organizations like yourselves, employers for change, but also organizations like the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, who are, who have got lots of resources and supports there as well.

Mohamed: I, I've just been Enjoying you flowing through and in this conversation, you've already answered some of my questions, but one thing I get confused about is some businesses, um, try to, um, implement diversity, equality and inclusion without recognizing disability inclusion. I know you've already mentioned some best practices for businesses, but how do we combine inclusivity and accessibility to best match in providing reasonable accommodation?

Because these two things cannot go without each other. If the [00:14:00] workplace is inclusive, then people with disabilities would be able to find it more easy. So how do we get a match between these two? 

Eoin: Yeah, again, really important. I think accessibility, employee resource groups are accessibility in the agenda of equality, diversity and inclusion is often forgotten, and we're only seeing now that organizations are really saying, well, you can't address equality and you can see this.

You can't address equality, diversity and inclusion if you don't address accessibility. So. What we would recommend organizations to do is have what's known as an access champion or in the public sector might be an access officer. They have a legal requirement in the public sector to have an access officer.

What is the access officer? What is the access champion? They're, they're a point of contact to people with disabilities, maybe for customers, but for also in the area of employment. But the role of that access champion is to facilitate accessibility within the organization. And it's all aspects of accessibility.

It's the HR, [00:15:00] it's the built environment. It's the. procurement, it's the learning and development, it's the information provision, customer services, and we can go on. Okay. But what we would say to organizations is, okay, you, you, you have this access champion. You don't need to, um, set up a kind of what's, what's called an accessibility team or an accessibility steering group.

And the idea of that is you bring people in from different departments are from different departments within your organization. You bring someone from HR, you bring someone from health and safety, you bring someone from Corporate services from marketing communications from information provision. So you set up a team that's representative of the organization.

You then provide them that team with training and awareness. So training and awareness about what is, what, what really is accessibility about? What is universal design? What are the key pillars to create that? Inclusive workplace or organization and then you benchmark. So you benchmark the organization based on national international good practice and you say, okay, we're looking at, we'll take the HR department as 1 [00:16:00] example.

So you go into that HR department, you find out what policies, practices and procedures to have in place. Do you have a policy around reasonable accommodation? What, what policy do you have around recruitment, retention? You know, what supports do you provide? How do you, how do you collect your data around meeting the needs of employees with disabilities within the workplace?

And then you report back into the, to the main access group and you say, well, we don't have, we, we have the following in place, but we need to do the X, Y and Z in order to, to bring ourselves in line with good practice. And then you roll out a plan. And, and basically you're saying, well. The organization then has a three year action plan on how they can improve accessibility in all areas.

So, as I mentioned, HR, the built environment, the customer services, the procurement, the information provision. So that, we, that's direct steps we would recommend. And what's really important here is they're looking at national, international good practice. Not just looking at minimum standards. Okay, and that's one way.

Separate to that access champion and access group, you have your employee resource group and that's like your [00:17:00] consultative group that's actually feeding into your main group, telling you what the challenges are faced by people with disabilities within the workplace. So you're getting first hand experience from your employees about the challenges that are faced.

And then you, you report annually to management on, on how the plan is, is, is working out. So. I should have mentioned at the start that you have to get the senior leader buy in in order for your access team to be fully successful and stuff like that. So there's lots of different ways. So if kind of summarize that you have a, you point an access champion, you set up an access team, you benchmark against international, internationally good practice.

You, you find out where you are and then you put a, you put a policy and a plan in place and then you start to implement that plan. But you always report back to management on how you're doing because it allows them to see where they are based on international good practice. And then the importance of the employee resource group.

So they're going to drive change because they're going to be, you know, in, in, in a positive way, they're going to drive change because they're going to be saying to, to [00:18:00] the access team, These are the challenges we're currently faced within the workplace. How can we, how can we put policies or processes in place to improve them?

But they're also going to create an awareness within the organization about the importance of accessibility and they're going to have, you know, town halls around, around accessibility and stuff like that. They may have a charter, you know, they have a charter about what the employee resource group. So they're basically a sounding board for the organization.

But they're also driving the change, as you mentioned at the start, like we can't have equality, diversity and inclusion if we don't address accessibility. So that's kind of what we would recommend. So you've got a, you've got a system in place within the organization to address accessibility, and you've an employee resource group who's advising you, supporting you to implement the change as well.

Mohamed: Thank you very much for breaking down this difficult concept of Um, bringing these two things together. So, um, before we round up, let's look at misconceptions. What are some [00:19:00] common misconceptions businesses have about accessibility, reasonable accommodation? 

Eoin: Again, I think one of them would be that employers think that reasonable accommodations only need to be applied for when, when the employee isn't actually employed, or it only needs to be done at the, you know, during induction of a new employee and stuff.

But reasonable accommodations is, is, has to be carried out through, throughout all stages of a person's employment. So that, that includes, that includes recruitment. and interviewing. It includes when someone's going for training. It includes when, when, when people, when there's an internal event being organized within the company, you need to provide, provide reasonable accommodation.

And so I suppose one misconception is that people think that reasonable accommodations is only at the, you know, when we, when we, when we hire someone with a disability, we'll ask them, do they have any reasonable accommodations? And we take a box and say, yes, we've done that. But it's actually, I think it's really important.

And that's a legal requirement that at all stages of employment, [00:20:00] you must address these accommodations for employees with disabilities. The other thing I think is that people don't understand is that it's all types of employees. It's part time employees. It's full time employees. It's contractors that you may have in on a six month contract.

under the Employment Equality Act. It's all different types of employees that are under the requirements of the legislation. So you must address that. 

Mohamed: What final message will you have for the audience and How can they get in touch with you in terms of designing accessible workplaces? 

Eoin: I think my final message is that, like, by, by addressing the needs of employees with disabilities, and also by addressing, I suppose, welcoming customer services or visitor experience, you're enhancing the accessibility and usability for everyone.

So I think that is, That is one of the final messages I would give. The other message I would give is that for employers, it's, you know, it's, it's a no [00:21:00] brainer because, you know, you're, you're, you're attracting a wider pool of talent. It's going to enhance the diversity and inclusion within your business, but it's also going to, you know, we can give lots of statistics to say that it's going to increase your productivity.

So it's going to benefit the company massively by, by addressing this whole area of meeting the needs of employees with disabilities, not just from. The needs of your employees, but also from the, the company is going to benefit in the long run, increased turnover, increased productivity, uh, you know, as I said, attracting a wider pool of talent and, and, and, and stuff like that.

And I suppose the second message final message I would give is, is striving towards best practice, not just legislative requirements. So organizations that we work with and do who do it well, they're always trying to achieve best in class because they want to not, not just to be best in class, but because they know.

Of the added value that it's going to bring to them, not, not just to them as well, but to the, to their employees as well. So, you know, there's so much information [00:22:00] out there. It's trying to find, trying to distill that information down to what is best practice, but always strive towards best practice, uh, would be my, you know, a universal design approach and, and, and so on.

So there are the 2 last messages I would give you in relation to. Um, contacting ourselves and I think what we, what we, what we try to do is, is create frameworks and strategies for companies so that they can improve their all aspects of accessibility as I mentioned, and we can support those companies then throughout that journey, uh, while making improvements, providing the training for the employee resource groups, providing the training for the access teams and access champions and stuff like that.

We've, we've a website and we're currently redoing it at the moment. www. accessconsultancy. ie. So that's our website or our, our landline number is, uh, 014151285, but you can come, you can contact us through our website, www. accessconsultancy. ie. 

Mohamed: [00:23:00] The Employers for Change podcast is a program of the Open Doors Initiative funded by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, and integration and you to stay informed.

You can subscribe to the Open Doors podcast and follow Employers for Change on all social channels. My name is Mohammed Sahid Camara and until next time, bye bye.