The way people with disabilities are treated in the workplace affects the whole European economy and its working population, according to a new CD-Rom guide published by the European Foundation in Dublin. The guide proposes policy initiatives, strategic plans and operational frameworks to improve workplace accessibility.
Entitled Making Workplaces Accessible - a guide to the integration of disabled people into industrial workplaces - the CD-Rom is designed for "policy makers, management strategists and all those concerned with implementing accessibility at an operational level in industrial enterprises".
Information and guidelines on detailed workspace design for people with disabilities is already available across the EU. But due to legislative, cultural and historic reasons, guidelines differ from country to country. This CD-Rom does not attempt to present the various legal obligations. Rather, it offers "general guidance on principles - the details of which will vary from country to country".
According to the foundation: "Quite often, issues of disability and the workplace are presented in limited terms of mobility and the wheelchair. However, the importance of such issues in industrial workspace design goes far beyond this - significantly affecting the whole European economy and its working population."
The guide is at times critical of common support systems for disabled people in the workplace. While it agrees that quota systems "can give positive support", the guide counters that "in reality disabled workers get low paid, low grade, undemanding work and are prone to employer exemptions". On sheltered workshops/industrial units, the guide says "in reality they can cost more than employment and tend to segregate, isolate, increase `visibility' and encourage low level, unskilled tasks".
It is also critical of guaranteed work which, while ensuring that principal industries give contracts to specialised smaller enterprises, "in reality the smaller companies may still need subsidy support".
Meanwhile, subsidised enterprises "employ disabled workers, almost exclusively, in production units using modern technologies and work practices to produce quality products at competitive prices but in reality a proportion of workers transfer, in a continuous stream, to other industries and can still require significant subsidies", says the guide.
Finally, it finds that employment support "can act as a positive incentive for industrial enterprise endeavour but in reality such schemes are dependent for success on much more than often limited or misdirected legislation".
Making workplaces more accessible can help enterprises to gain a competitive advantage by gaining or retaining skilled workers, it argues. Better accessibility also creates "an open image of a humane, caring, long term enterprise" which will "project a series of powerful symbols to all users". Meanwhile, experience shows that workplaces in which the needs of disabled workers have been considered and met "become better, safer, healthier, more creative spaces for all workers", says the guide.
In designing for workplace accessibility, the process is as important as the product. "Taking into account the special needs of disabled workers adds extra complexity but brings greater rewards," argues the guide. An analysis of workplace accessibility should include studying the existing working environment; analysing the use of space; reorganising spaces as "design alternatives"; studying building regulations; getting feedback on the proposed design or re-design and producing a cost plan.
Features which employers should consider include - at the approaches to the workplace: wide car-parking bays; drop-off zones; textured paving; correct stair pitch; correct handrail height; non-skid surfaces; audio warning lights; resting spaces/landings and no kerbs.
Entrances and clear routes: no steps; automatic doors; low level handles; correct letter box heights; ample door/opening widths; coloured flooring; correct desk/counter heights; illuminated signs; low level switches; stair lifts.
Making Workplaces Accessible (price #16) is available from Mr Dimitrios Politis, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, Wyattville Road, Loughlinstown Road, Co Dublin. Telephone: 01 204 3140. Fax: 01 282 6456. E-mail: dimitrios.politis@eurofound.ie
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