EMC India COE holds awareness drive on visual impairment

BANGALORE, INDIA: EMC India Center of Excellence (CoE) recently concluded an awareness workshop for its employees on assistive technologies for visually impaired individuals at its Bangalore campus.

The program targeted to create awareness and sensitize managers, hiring leads, leadership and other teams on visual impairment and how assistive technologies can help a person with visual impairment function successfully at work.

The Disability Empowerment Resource Group, India network (DERG India) at EMC India COE in collaboration with EMC Global Services business unit led the program. They organized sessions covering different vision impairments and hiring processes for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). The event also saw some of the managers at EMC being recognized for their efforts in hiring PWDs.

In addition to this, EMC's partner, Enable India, an NGO that empowers PWDs had set up a showcase of assistive aids and technology focusing on workplace enablement for the visually impaired. Some of the technologies on display and demo were Jaws, Braille Business Card reader, Zoomex kits, Laptop with built in magnifier/High Contrast settings, Magnifiers - Overhead/Handheld/Illuminated, Pen Labeler, Tactile Training materials, Talking cash counting machine and Splitter box etc. The showcase offered a first-hand experience and understanding of how individuals with visual impairment can function easily at their workplaces.

The response of the awareness workshop was overwhelming. Many employees were amazed with the skills and capabilities of the volunteers with visual impairment during the demos of these assistive aids. The employees at EMC are now more cognizant of work place needs of visually impaired employees and managers at EMC are now diligently taking up the task of understanding the needs of such employees, the hiring processes etc.

According to "EMC India COE is committed to improving the quality of life and the standard of services to all EMC employees who are Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) and their families. EMC's focus for this year is a proactive approach in hiring PWDs. Such awareness programs help employees to understand how PWDs can be enabled at workplaces with ease and the business imperative for realizing the potential of PWDs."