Webinars

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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing labour market barriers faced by people with disabilities in the Asia and Pacific region. At the same time, the pandemic has accelerated certain Future of Work mega trends, including the growth of the digital economy and the demand for digitally skilled workers.

The ILO Global Business Disability Network (GBDN) two-day conference highlighted recent corporate promising practices in addressing disability inclusion (including from Accenture, Compass Group, Pizza Hut, Sony, Standard Chartered Bank, Tata Consultancy Services) as well as the work of National Business and Disability Networks.

Interpretation into International Sign was provided.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing labour market barriers faced by people with disabilities in the Asia and Pacific region. At the same time, the pandemic has accelerated certain Future of Work mega trends, including the growth of the digital economy and the demand for digitally skilled workers.

The ILO Global Business Disability Network (GBDN) two-day conference focussed on its second day on Digital in Demand (DiD) initiatives, aimed at bringing enterprises and digital skills training providers closer together to enable the employment of persons with disabilities in the digital economy, including by tackling stereotypes based on disability and gender. Through group work sessions, practical recommendations to digital skills training providers, government or international donors, Organisations of Persons with Disabilities and disability NGOs on how to overcome barriers to digital skills acquisition by persons with disabilities were developed.

Interpretation into International Sign was provided.

How can business change ideas and possibilities around the inclusion and employment of persons with disabilities? Hosted by the ILO’s Global Business and Disability Network, this webinar featured experiences from the private sector around the world. The webinar explored what can be done in practice to tackle stigma and stereotypes on disability, and what approaches there are to focus on talent and inclusion.

Speakers:

Anne-Sophie Beraud – VP Group Inclusion & Diversity, AccorHotels (GBDN Chair): introduced the webinar series and the challenges companies face in creating a shared positive understanding of disability and disability issues;

Yves Veulliet – Global Disability & Inclusion Program Manager, IBM (GBDN Vice-Chair): gave a keynote presentation highlighting key messages and techniques for making new conversations on disability inclusion in global business;

Shashaank Awasthi – Co-founder, V-shesh (an award-winning India-based company promoting inclusion): presented conversations with employers and new perspectives to respond to their key concerns on disability.

Please download the webinar presentations here.

Senior accountability and global governance frameworks are essential for any multinational company wanting to enable consistent, equitable and dignified treatment for people with disabilities in every market they operate in.

This webinar launched the ILO Global Business and Disability Network’s “Accountability in Action” – a detailed profile of the GSK Global Disability Confidence Council, which provides a unique insight into how a global company structures the governance and senior accountability to focus on disability inclusion in key areas – such as tech, premises, recruitment, products and services – with the aim to deliver consistent best practice globally. Download at http://www.businessanddisability.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/GSK_GDCC.pdf

Nick Hirons, Senior Vice President Global Ethics and Compliance & Chair of the Global Disability Confidence Council, presented the Council, its values and ways of working; how and why it sets global priorities and standards; and offered his ‘top tips’ for any CEO seeking to benefit from GSK’s long experience positioning disability equality as an ethical and economic imperative.

Margaret Smith, Senior Managing Director Geographic Services and Business Operations at Accenture, shared her experience regarding how senior executive disability champions can shape the global cultures which then enable consistent fair and equitable treatment of all persons with disabilities.

Andy Garrett, member of the GSK Global Disability Confidence Council and Workplace Adjustments and Accessibility Lead, shared how the company is operationalising GSK’s global commitment to implementing consistent service standards and values.

Susan Scott-Parker OBE, founder business disability international, introduced the “Accountability in Action” profile, which she wrote in close collaboration with the Council. Susan also moderated the session.

Live captioning and International Sign interpretation were provided.

Learn more about the ILO Global Business and Disability Network: http://www.businessanddisability.org/

The webinar “Affirmative recruitment practices: Ensuring an inclusive experience for job seekers with disabilities” showed that to harness the business benefits of disability inclusion, companies proactively remove barriers in their recruitment practices to ensure inclusive experiences for everyone, including people with disabilities.

Accenture and the Australian Public Service Commission presented case studies on their inclusive recruitment practices.

Speakers:
Alberto Lapi & Aldo Pozzoli, Accenture
Robyn Beutel, Australian Public Service Commission

Moderator:
Bruce Roch, Adecco Group

The digital revolution in the world of work impacts all. How does it impact people with disabilities? Which chances and potential barriers does digitalised work bring for disability inclusion? What are the actions to ensure nobody is left behind and the digital divide is closed? The report “An inclusive digital economy for people with disabilities”, developed by the ILO Global Business and Disability Network and Fundacion ONCE in the framework of Disability Hub Europe, aims to answer those and other relevant questions. The publication was launched at the Zero Project conference on 10 February 2021. Live captioning and International Sign were provided.

Leaders in private sector companies can play a decisive role in making sure that the immediate and socio-economic responses to the global COVID-19 crisis are inclusive of persons with disabilities and their needs. The ILO Global Business and Disability Network and The Valuable 500 teamed up to take a closer look.

Moderated by Caroline Casey (Founder, The Valuable 500), Paul Polman (Chair and Co-founder, IMAGINE) and Matthias Thorns (Deputy Secretary-General, International Organisation of Employers (IOE)) discussed what business leaders can and should do to make COVID-19 responses inclusive of persons with disabilities.

The panel discussion was followed by presentations by:

• Tomas Malango – Experimentation & Technology Support Director, Repsol
• Sarbani Chakravarty – Director, India Business and Disability Network (IBDN)
• Elham Youssefian – Inclusive Humanitarian Action and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Advisor, International Disability Alliance (IDA)

The webinar ended with short interventions by:

• Yves Veulliet – Global Disability & Inclusion Leader, IBM
• Don Watson – Vice-President Global Workplace and Enterprise Services, Merck
• Manisha Mehta – Global Diversity & Inclusion Manager, Unilever
• Diane Lightfoot – CEO, Business Disability Forum (BDF) UK

International Sign interpretation and live captioning were provided.

In times of COVID-19-related teleworking, it is more important than ever to have effective global company systems for reasonable accommodations in place that effectively work around the world. Hosted by business disability international and the ILO Global Business and Disability Network, the webinar “Designing workplace adjustment services that deliver – worldwide” presented key issues in system design and shared existing good global company practices.

As part of the Academy on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work – organised by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO) – the session “Disability in the 2020s: A digital decade for an inclusive World of Work” on 13 October featured a discussion with

• Neil Milliken – Global Head of Accessibility, Atos
• Karine Sonigo – Skills Digitalisation Specialist, ILO
• Jim Nemeño – Operations Manager, Philippine Business and Disability Network
• moderated by Jürgen Menze – Disability Inclusion Officer, ILO

to address questions like how to ensure that people with disabilities can benefit from the ever-growing digital economy, what the role of companies and training providers can be, how latest digital technology can be used for good as well as which challenges and opportunities of telework by workers with disabilities exist.

Interpretation into International Sign was provided.

Facilitated by the ILO Global Business and Disability Network, all interested stakeholders, including governments, workers’ and employers’ organisations as well as organisations of persons with disabilities participated in a webinar to share good practices on the inclusion of people with disabilities in the COVID-19 responses related to the World of Work.

Speakers:

• Federico Negro, Head of Coordination Support unit for Peace and Resilience (CSPR) at ILO;
• Haibin Zhou, coordinator of the China chapter of the ILO Global Business and Disability Network;
• Yves Veulliet, Global Disability & Inclusion Leader at IBM;
• Jon Messenger, Senior Specialist on Working Conditions at ILO;
• Bela Gor, Head of Legal & Content at Business Disability Forum (BDF), United Kingdom.