A great deal has been written about and demonstrated regarding the importance of strategic activity in business. ‘Bosberaads’, ‘lehotlas’, ‘imbizos’, stratplans, think-tanks, brainstorms, are all common parlance in day-to-day business.
However, one subject almost guaranteed not to be included in any meaningful strategic thinking, is disability.
How it might relate to diversity or equity best practice, or compliance, let alone customer service among other things?
Why is there such a gap in strategic thinking and activity in traditional public and private sector organizations?
The answer is largely to do with lack of awareness and experience, the required perspective and most often a simple unwillingness to take this particular bull by the horns. It is clear that certain patterns are common to them all regarding disability and its infiltration into the secular business world.
Considerable research and experience have been employed by Jeremy Opperman & Associates since 1999 in observing disability integration practices within numerous South African businesses and parastatals.
For generations, disability has been regarded from the perspective of welfare or victim. This in turn has created a mindset amongst many roleplayers, that disability falls into a somewhat limited and stereotypic category and place as regards “their” role in society and business.
Notwithstanding disabilities acknowledgment formally within legislation beginning in 1996 with the inclusion of disability rights in the Constitution and in 1998, with the promulgation of the Employment Equity Act corporate South Africa has struggled to find a comfortable place and role for this prodigal child of disability.
This is not through lack of caring per se but rather through inexperience and a profound lack of knowledge and understanding, which has found corporate and public sector to be struggling to incorporate disability equitably within its formal structures.
Identifying Common problems
• Limited or non-existent executive participation or understanding in matters pertaining disability or for that matter, diversity.
• An all too common adhoc and reactive diversity/equity range of activities.
• A limited and narrow focused, silo-oriented diversity activity regime, for instance very often only focusing on a Human Resources field of influence, and/or perhaps Corporate Social Investment.
• Ongoing inappropriate, stereotypic or unlawful practices mostly involving human resource issues, but also including things like accessibility and customer service amongst other things.
• There is still little consistency or resilience in any interventions executed.
However, the biggest single common problem demonstrated by the majority of organizations is the lack of a holistic and strategically led approach. A disability policy alone cannot guarantee success.
In short roleplayers are often daunted about the perceived size of the problem and where to start. This leads to ‘disability equity paralysis’ which of course is not unlike Eating Elephants!