The Association of People with Disability (APD, India) is transforming the lives of underprivileged people with disability since 1959. Based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, we run extensive programs in rural and urban Karnataka to enable, equip and empower children and adults with a range of disabilities including locomotor, spinal cord injury, speech and hearing, cerebral palsy, and to some extent, mental issues. Till date, we have impacted 500,000+ lives of people with disability. 

Livelihood Support for People with Disability

Despite the implementation of The Persons with Disability Act, 1995 (revised in 2016), people with disability (PwDs) struggle to get jobs. Presently, there are many skilled and semi-skilled jobs across industries that can be performed by PwDs. But there is a lack of awareness and sensitivity among recruiters, poor job-readiness of the PwDs themselves along with lack of awareness and training in required skills. 

APD works to mobilize marginalized youth with disability, train them through formal and informal courses, and place them in jobs that are suitable to their qualification and ability. We also sensitize employers towards the needs of PwDs for an equitable work environment.

Training

Training is conducted based on the recommendations of the Placement team along with regular ongoing courses.

Foundation Course

• Before any domain training PwDs lacking life-skills go through a 2-month foundation course, a unique job-readiness program from APD. The course involves skilling up on self-management, daily living, basic communication, calligraphy and English language, basic mathematics, sign language, and more.

• The required PwDs receive therapy support as well as aids & appliances. All candidates can access government entitlement schemes such as pension, disability ID cards, transport passes and more.

Employer Led Training (ELT)

As part of this program, APD identifies candidates (through the recruitment unit) and provides them job-appropriate training for placement in the government or private sector. The curriculum is jointly developed with training partners, tailor-made to the needs of selected employers. The training period includes capacity building of the potential employers on a rights-based approach to recruitment, induction and mentoring, to promote a work culture that values diversity.

• BPO ELT: Intensive 8-weeks on-the-job training (OJT) and practical sessions to enhance the candidates’ communication, computer, customer service and life skills.

• Hospitality ELT: Intensive 8-weeks training for the hospitality industry, conducted in collaboration with training centres or academic institutions such as the Presidency College of Hotel Management and YUM Academy.

• Retail ELT: Intensive 8-weeks training to equip trainees on communication, customer interaction, labelling and selling.

Centre of Excellence for PwDs (CoE) is one of SBI Foundation’s flagship programmes. It was conceptualized with a goal to be a centralized support centre for persons with disabilities. CoE, since its inception, believes that persons with disabilities are perfectly capable of making important contributions to the society. They have the requisite drive to succeed in employment, and the skills and talent necessary to deliver on the job.

Centre of Excellence primarily works on empowering PwDs through skill enhancement to make significant and measurable improvement that enables individuals to enjoy a more productive and satisfying life by optimizing their cognitive, physical, social and vocational functioning.

Vision

Working towards a more inclusive India: removing barriers to employment and employability for PwDs

Mission 

Bridging distance and differences and being inclusive.

Programmes

• Project SAMEIP: Project SAMEIP will enable career pathways for 500 underserved youth with disabilities in the digitally transformed Banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector in India by setting up five centres Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. SAMEIP is being directly implemented and monitored by the American India Foundation Trust (AIFT). 

• SBI Shravan Shakti: SBI Foundation has provided financial assistance for cochlear implant surgeries of underprivileged children born with a speech and hearing impairment under the ADIP Scheme of Government of India. This cochlear implant project has been implemented by Ali Yavar Jung Institute of Speech and Hearing Disabilities (AYJNISHD). So far, SBI Foundation has supported the implant surgeries of 67 children identified in the wait list for cochlear implant. The post-surgery rehabilitation, speech, and mapping of hearing implant is done through electrical threshold for three years continuously. This surgery eventually enables the children born with a speech and hearing impairment to listen and speak.

• SBI Parivarthan: Through Parivarthan, SBI Foundation in partnership with Youth4Jobs hopes to make inclusive employment of PwDs a norm. Through this initiative, we aim to help PwDs develop vital communication, provide them the best chance of becoming economically active and in-turn empower them to maximise employment, achieve economic self-sufficiency and independence, and to realise full inclusion and integration into society.

The enrolled youth with disability undergo a market linked training program in classroom and industrial visit for 60 days, which includes learning English and a basic knowledge computers, developing one's personality and self-confidence, learning how to tally, and many more market-oriented courses based on the market value. After successful completion of the training program, based on the skill set of the candidates and market needs, these individuals get placed in companies in the organized sector. 

Training differently-abled employees — the SBI way, HBL, 2018

College of Fragrance for the Visually Impaired (COFVI) is a unique education initiative in Mumbai, India, funded by fragrance industry partners.

Research conducted by us with the help of BPA & fragrance partners clearly shows that a heightened sense of smell in the visually impaired

Based on these finding COFVI was established by Trustees Sheetal Desai & Renuka Theaogaonkar In 2013. COFVI’s purpose is to educate the under privileged visually impaired students and find them employment in the fragrance, flavour and FMCG companies.

Persons With Disability, Deaf Mute Jobs and Vacancies

Jobs for Deaf

Jobs for Deaf

Jobability.org is an online job portal that matches job seekers from people with disabilities with job vacancies, placements and resources. It provides a wealth of information and services for potential employees, employers and service providers, including advertising job vacancies online, managing applications, and providing access to training opportunities.

Jobability was developed by Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD) through its Access to Livelihoods programme, which is supported by the Accenture Foundation. This programme helps people with disabilities across India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, The Philippines and South Africa to gain the skills they need to enter employment or start their own business.

Jobability also contains a wide range of resources and information on disability and employment for job seekers, employees, employers, service providers and those who want to find out more about disability.

Jobability offers

• For job seekers

• For recruiters and employers 

• For service providers

• Livelihoods Resource Centres (LRCs)

National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation (NHFDC) with Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities(Divyangjan), Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment) promote entrepreneurship among the disabled by providing loans for the proposed self-employment venture. Prior to that, if training is required NHFDC will provide stipend during the training period. Also have schemes for educational loans and scholarships. All schemes of NHFDC are run by State Corporations / agencies, whose address can be found on the website. 

Self-Financing and Entrepreneurial Schemes

• Divyangjan Swavalamban Yojna

• Guidelines for credit based and non credit based funding

• Vishesh Microfinance Yojna

• An Initiative by NHFDC for PwD's--Vehicle Ownership for Income Generation

• Opportunities for Divyanjan for associating with NHFDC as owner of NHFDC’s Swavalamban Kendra(NSK) (Self Employment Model)

  • Teaser of NHFDC Swavalamban Kendra

  • Teaser of Mask Making Skill Training for PwDs

    • Application for Loan Assistance under NSK Scheme - Only for NHFDC Swavalamban Kendra

    • NSK – Ownership Application Form - Only for NHFDC Swavalamban Kendra

    • Forwarding Letter for Loan Application to NHFDC Foundation - Only for NHFDC Swavalamban Kendra

• NHFDC New Marketing Initiative

  • Teaser of EKAM FEST 2020

Samvedna Disabled Persons Social Welfare Trust works to enable persons with disability to earn by means of self employment. Samvedna donates computer, sewing machine, hand cart, tool kits etc. Disabled seeking jobs may also register on their website.

Job Seekers

SAMVEDNA helps find equitable employment opportunities to qualified persons with Disabilities, connecting them to unbiased equal-opportunity employers from across the country. It is a platform where you will be evaluated solely on the basis of your qualifications and skills, not Disabilities. This service has two main objectives:

• Identifying job opportunities in firms, institutions, malls, multiplexes, factories, Industries, companies, organizations, corporate and enable easy access to “Persons with Disabilities” in finding a job that is right for him/her at a right place.

• If required, provide training related to their employment.

Employers

SAMVEDNA heartily “Welcomes” all the esteemed employers who felt to feel the “Sensation” of this community. It strongly advocated integration and inclusion of “Persons with Disabilities” into Society for their financial self-sufficiency. Further, it aims is to stand side by side, strengthen and empower “Physically Challenged Persons”, who have no other forms of support in Society, to develop necessary skills and thereby enable them to live an independent life.

Job Portal for Persons with Disability

Sarthak Education Trust has Centers: New Delhi, Chandigarh, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Ludhiana, Lucknow

Sarthak develops skills in young people with disabilities through basic training program, corporate linked training program, employability training program and rural training program. These candidates are placed with their partners Aegis, Infosys, Team Computers, Plan India, Yum International etc. Sarthak also conducts job fairs. It is a holistic platform for providing skills and empowering the disabled.

To Empower Persons with Disability, enabling them to live their life with dignity and respect.

Sarthak Educational Trust was started in year 2008. To achieve this vision of empowerment of persons with disability team Sarthak is geared "To establish SARTHAK ADARSH Kendras (Skill Building & Early Intervention Centers) across the Nation" Sarthak is aimed towards carving an equal stature for persons with disability by providing them a platform wherein, they have equal access to opportunities and resources. 

Skill Building

Sarthak JEET (Job Entrepreneurship and Empowerment Training) Program for Persons with disability addresses the requirements of PwDs aged between 18-35 years by providing vocational skill building training and sustainable employment opportunities.

The 3-month skill building program comprises of

• Basic Skill Building: 1.5-month basic skilling (Computers, English, Life skills)

• Sector-Specific Training: 1 month sector specific (IT/ITes, Retail, Hospitality and Ecommerce) 

• Pre Employment Module: 15 days pre placement modules

Further, various allied activities (guest lectures, exposure visits, parents’ workshops) and corporate volunteering activities are part of 3-month extensive training programme.

For enrolment in Sarthak JEET Program, Persons with disability can register online Click here or drop an email to trainings@sarthakindia.org 

Sarthak Sustainable Employment Program

When it comes to inclusion of people with disabilities in the workforce, Indian businesses have a long road to travel. Only 34 lakhs of the about 1.34 crore people with disabilities (PwDs) in the employable age have a job in India, according to Equiv.in, a recruitment platform that cited government data for the numbers. That is an unemployment rate of more than 70%. Which is why Sarthak envisions to employ more and more trained persons with disabilities in various professional paradigms.

Sustainable Employment Plan by Sarthak

• The dedicated Employment Support Team of Sarthak, with the support of our existing 1000+ hiring partners organizes Job Fairs, schedule candidate’s interviews and arrange in house interview drives to place the PwD candidates.

• Through networking & liaising, and other advocacy events like Sensitization Workshops, Regional Summits etc. new corporate partners are persuaded and sensitized towards diversity and inclusion in the workforce.

• Post Placement follow up is done by team Sarthak to ensure that the placement is sustainable.

Sarthak sustainable employment program focuses on providing equitable inclusive employment for youth with disabilities. Sarthak follows 8 strategies to ensure placement of a person with disability:

1. Job Mapping- It is the process to explore suitable job roles for persons with disability across sectors along with reasonable accommodation to effectively meet the job requirements and expected level of performance.

2. Candidate Mapping- It is a process of aligning the right candidate to the right profile. i.e matching skill set as per requirement.

3. Recruitment- Ensuring accessible ecosystem while conducting interviews during one-to-one placement drive or job fairs. (Sign language interpreters, accessible technology in case of written test etc)

4. Disability Sensitisation Workshop- It aims at creating awareness and sensitized approach among different levels of workforce in an organization to work towards creating an ecosphere to have an inclusive workplace by recognizing ‘ability in disability'.

5. Post Placement Follow up- It is a process of hand holding employer as well as candidates for at least 6 months.

6. Campus connect– Connecting with PwDs, present in different institutional paradigms.

7. Job fairs- The presence of different companies on the same platform, where it provides the PwDs the opportunity to apply in different companies.

8. Walk in Interviews- In the endeavor to empower PwDs, Sarthak also helps the non- enrolled PwDs to get in touch with the companies where they can directly give interviews.

Additional Services

• Accessibility Support (Basic/ Advanced)- It refers to Physical accessibility and involves Accessibility Audit of work-sites and sharing comprehensive report of required alterations to achieve Basic or Advanced level of accessibility, as per organization discretion.

• Secondary Training of PwD Workforce (For Career Advancement)- It refers to continuous workplace training and lifelong learning enabling workers and enterprises to adjust to an increasingly rapid pace of change. It also includes anticipating and building competencies for future needs to equip PwD workforce with required skill set for career development and growth.

• Rehabilitation of Disabled Workforce- Every worker has a probability to acquire a disability or illness that hinders their ability to work. Thus, return to work or rehabilitation of disabled workforce is of immense significance as it assists employees to work while still recuperating and earning livelihood as well as contributing to organization’s performance.

For employment queries, write to employment@sarthakindia.org 

Swami Vivekanand National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research (SVNIRTAR) is an Autonomous body under Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities  Provides Information upon on going recruitments.

Recruitment

Placement

Different Companies (National and International) like Otto-Bock, Endolite, ALIMCO, Astha Therapeutics Intervention Pvt. Ltd., Jindal Power and Steel Ltd. conducts Campus Interview for the final year students.

Internship Programme

After Successful Competition of 4 year BPT and BOT Course the students join in internship for six(6) month. Outside students who have been passed the BPT and BOT courses from recognized university/Institution as regular students may also apply for internship.

TRRAIN (Trust for Retailers & Retail Associates of India) is a public charitable trust with an aim to be a catalyst for change in the retail industry, with a vision to empower people in retail. We are an entity with the right amount of commitment and the right amount of enthusiasm to make a difference. Established in 2011, TRRAIN strives to bring an immediate and lasting change in the lives of retail associates in India, both at work and at home.

• TRRAINHer Ascent – Livelihood program is an initiative which began in 2018 to empower women in retail. It aims at training and creating livelihood opportunities for women in retail. It focuses on providing employment to those who want to join the retail industry. This is a carefully designed skills training program that primarily focuses on retail skills and life skills. Through this livelihood program, TRRAIN aims to promote a gender diverse workforce in retail.

Why is TRRAINHer Ascent – Livelihood Creation Program different?

• Industry-Relevant curriculum

• Professional and experienced trainers

• High-quality training

• Industry readiness training

• Best-in-class infrastructure

• An opportunity to work with some of the best retailers in India

• Pankh - Wings of Destiny, an initiative by TRRAIN, seeks to create sustainable livelihood for PwDs in retail industry. Pankh provides employment opportunities for disabled in retail industry through 45 days' classroom training on Life Skills, English Language Skills and Retail Specific Skills. This is followed by 10-15 days of on-the-job training in malls. On completion of the program, retail organizations evaluate the candidates and offer placement.

  • NGO Partnerships:  We tie up with local NGOs that work with Persons with Disabilities and announce training and employment opportunities through them. Through this collaborative model Pankh (and thus, TRRAIN) has successfully established a pan-India presence.

  • Skills Training: This training program aims to arm a PwD with the complete spectrum of retail specific skills. Our primary focus here is to develop three key skills, i.e.

    • Life skills,

    • English language skills and

    • Retail specific skills such as retail math, cashiering, computers, customer handling and work readiness

  • Support to Employers

    • On the completion of the training program, retail organisations are invited to evaluate the Pankh graduates for placements

    • Post placements, our team provides support to retailers in order to help them match roles with a person’s disabilities

    • We also conduct ‘Sensitisation Workshops’ for the existing retail staff in the company. This is done in order to promote a work environment that is non-biased and one that promotes growth

    • Further on, our counsellors continue to be in touch with the retailer as well as the Pankh graduates in order to ensure all is well

TRRAIN Trust: Pankh - Wings of Destiny, in association with HSBC Bank, in their Disability Employment: Indian Retail Changing Equations January 2019 Report, has investigated in great detail the opportunity that exists in providing employment for Persons with Disabilities in the retail sector.

v-shesh Centers: Bangalore Chennai Delhi-NCR Mumbai

v-shesh provides persons with disabilities with training and access to suitable jobs in sectors like IT, IT Enabled Services, Banking and Financial Services, Aviation, Healthcare, Hospitality and Retail. 

The goal of v-shesh is to improve access to income and job opportunities for Persons with Disabilities and disadvantaged youth Organizations that see inclusion as an opportunity by developing effective and efficient market oriented solutions. The major activities include:

Learning: Language learning programmes

• So!ve: v-shesh has developed a bridge English deaf-learner centric school-based course.

• V-Sign: 3 Weeks interactive Online course for Indian Sign Language

• Signbee: Learning Sign Language can be a fun experience and help to communicate with the deaf community. SignBee is fascinating route to help children acquire basic Indian Sign Language skills.

Workforce: Serving Persons with Disabilities to be gainfully employed

• Jobs: v-shesh assist Persons with Disabilities access high quality and aspirational jobs across sectors and locations. Submit your resumes

Profiles of the jobs being staffed by v-shesh trainees are

• Transaction processing, credit risk assessment, AML/KYC checks, etc.

• Developer, system administrator, information security, networking, testing, etc.

• Accounts payable, Ads review, reconciliation, customer support, etc.

• Housekeeping, laundry and kitchen stewarding, etc.

• Stocker and replenisher, catalog management, inventory picking, etc. 

• Training: v-shesh trainees work for most well respected global and Indian companies in

• Banking and Financial Services

• Information Technology

• Information Technology Enabled Services

• Hospitality

• Retail

• E-commerce

Job ready training program to prepare the candidates to face interviews with poise and confidence and enhance their job prospects.

• • Training program that prepare jobs seekers for accessing high quality jobs.

  • Training program cover job readiness related topics like 

    • Workplace communication

    • Basic computer skills (MS Office)

    • Preparing for tests 

    • Specific domain related skills. 

Training program are for a duration of 4-8 weeks and conducted in English and/ or Sign Language.

• • Train and Hire program customized to meet specific employer requirements. 

• Returning Workers: v-shesh has designed skilling plan and content for persons with Psychosocial disabilities in partnership with The Banyan and BALM.

• Work trial: v-shesh has designed and run work trial based training programs for jobs in hospitality, retail and financial services sectors.

Workplace: Serving employers to progress in the journey of inclusion

• Recruitment: Having extensive experience in identifying and hiring talent on the basis of skill levels, v-shesh is ideally suited to help you become an inclusive employer

• Pre & Post hiring: Job analysis and mapping is the first step towards identifying suitable opportunities for persons with disability.

• Sensitization: Inclusive environments are not just physically accessible but sensitive to social aspects as well

• Policy advisory: v-shesh has training programs to support up skilling needs of your employees.

• Inclusion advisory: v-shesh offers a host of training programs to engage corporate bodies in becoming a disability confident organization.

Marketplace: To serve persons with disability - employees and customers - better

• Accessibility: Accessible environments are good for everyone (think ramp v/s stairs). Genuine accessibility includes not just physical environment and access to information but enables participation as an equal. v-shesh is empaneled as an Access Auditor with Government of India’s Accessible India Campaign.

• Opportunity in inclusion: Persons with Disabilities are the single largest minority in the world. Brands and businesses that are accessible and inclusive deliver better operational and financial outcomes

Over the years, Amazon has been relentlessly disrupting the workplace with initiatives to bring the disabled community into its workforce. Leveraging its technology and innovation infrastructure, Amazon is creating opportunities for these individuals throughout its network, empowering them with financial independence, and helping them realize their true potential. 

From a pilot to a countrywide phenomena

In April 2017, Amazon piloted an initiative designed to create opportunities for persons who are deaf in its Fulfilment Centre (FC) in Hyderabad. The pilot started with a handful of deaf associates, who were trained to pack shipments at the FC. This initiative has now rapidly expanded to more than eight cities including Bangalore, Chennai, Indore, Mumbai, Pune, and Hyderabad. 

More than 350 associates with speech and hearing disability are part of the Amazon network across the country’s Fulfilment Centers, Sortation Centers, and Delivery Stations. NGOs like Youth4Jobs and v-shesh provide valuable support and resources to Amazon in this D&I initiative. The associates at the FC work in various process paths mapped to the nature of the job and their skill set. Amazon - in partnership with partner NGOs - trains the associates with the help of interpreters to help them understand their role and perform at par. Further, every deaf associate is assigned to either an interpreter or a fellow associate buddy, who assists them with select tasks. Processes and mechanisms have also been established to create a good and safe work environment for these associates.

Project Sakshyam – extending the impact to Sortation Centers

Having worked with the deaf associates at Fulfilment Centers for more than a year, Amazon India knew that it was time to extend the programme and drive positive impact in a much larger scale. Over 2018, the company has on-boarded more than 50 deaf associates along with those with speech disabilities at the Bangalore Sortation Centre. This is India’s first Silent Sort Centre.

Silent stations 'delivering' impact in Mumbai

One of the most far-reaching impacts of Amazon’s commitment to the inclusion of persons with disability within its network is in the form of ‘Silent Delivery Stations’ – or last mile delivery stations that are entirely managed by deaf associates. The first such silent station was launched in Mumbai in January 2017, in partnership with Mirakle Couriers, a Delivery Service Partner that already employed a number of deaf individuals and those who are hard of hearing. Today, the dedicated Silent Delivery Station is completely managed and run by these associates. Seeing the success of the first such silent delivery station, Amazon in continued partnership with Mirakle Couriers opened its second silent station in in Mumbai in June 2018. These two stations have provided opportunities for more than 30 deaf delivery associates in the city.

Sources: 

• Walking the talk on Diversity & Inclusion of the disabled, 2019

• How speech and hearing-impaired associates thrive at Amazon India Operations, 2021

Hiring the Speech Impaired differently abled is a part of Café Coffee Day’s hiring policy. These speech-impaired differently abled have been hired by the Company to brewing coffees behind the counter. They are given the tag of the ‘Silent Brewmasters’. They have heightened sense of smell and vision and hence ensure the most visually appealing presentation of coffees.

Café Coffee Day has a Vocational Training College at Chikmaglur, Bangalore to impart quality education to differently abled. On successful completion of their courses in hotel management these individuals are offered employment in CCD outlets across the country. In the year 2013, the company received the prestigious ‘Shell Helen Keller Award’ in the Role Model Companies category for their contributions in improving the lives of Persons with Disabilities by encouraging change in recruitment attitude.

Source: 13 Indian Companies creating a positive example of Inclusivity by hiring people with disabilities, UnGender, 2018

Capgemini started recruiting the differently abled in 2012. It has more than 200 employees with hearing, speech and visual impairment, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. The company feels that the disabled work harder than most other people. The roles given to the differently abled range from account processing, technology support and software development to support functions such as recruitment and consulting.

The company provides hearing-impaired trainees with sign language interpreters for the first 15 days, to help them integrate with their teams, while their seniors and peers and sensitized and also given sign-language training to overcome communication barriers. The company also has a voluntary disclosure in the form of Disability Self Identification Form where employees can avail of reasonable adjustment for their work-related needs.

The company also engages with employees in periodic sensitization workshops and disability etiquette training.

Source: 13 Indian Companies creating a positive example of Inclusivity by hiring people with disabilities, UnGender, 2018

The Costa Coffee Shop chain overall employs around 100 (15% of store employee base) and is planning at increasing the number of PwDs and hiring them gradually across all stores.

One novelty about the chain is that its outlet in Green Park, Delhi is completely run by PwDs.

Source: 13 Indian Companies creating a positive example of Inclusivity by hiring people with disabilities, UnGender, 2018

IBM boasts of a special policy around hiring people with disabilities. This policy revolves around what IBM calls the three As:

• Accommodation

• Accessibility, and 

• Attitude

The company engages PwDs in departments such as Project Management, Programming, Consulting, Operations, Quality Assurance and Human Resources. It also boasts of India specific technologies that increase accessibility for PwDs such Hindi Speech recognition solutions.

In 2016, IBM conducted four-hour awareness sessions for senior employees on unconscious bias and the need for more differently-abled employees in the workforce.

Source: 13 Indian Companies creating a positive example of Inclusivity by hiring people with disabilities, UnGender, 2018

Jubilant FoodWorks runs the “Inclusive Employment Program” for PwDs. Till date, they have recruited more than 200 people having hearing and speech impairment across the country in their restaurants. In order to further institutionalize this program , they boast of being the first company in India to institutionalize the Inclusive Development of PwDs and have developed online training modules to sensitizing their employees.

In 2016, the company introduced a programme that will see differently-abled employees in managerial roles in 1 or 2 years. As of 2016, the company also panned to have one differently-abled worker in tier-1 city outlets that have 25 or more employees.

Source: 13 Indian Companies creating a positive example of Inclusivity by hiring people with disabilities, UnGender, 2018

KFC conducts hearing and speech impaired training projects and employees 170 specially-abled employees across 20 stores in India. 

The company started the KFC Academy to develop skills which increase employability not only in KFC but across all retail food chains. The fully sponsored 11-week (60 hours) training program teaches young, hearing-impaired differently abled English, Critical Skills, realistic job preview, food safety, industry familiarization, life skills and grooming.

Sources: 

• 13 Indian Companies creating a positive example of Inclusivity by hiring people with disabilities, UnGender, 2018

• Here’s how KFC India managed to successfully provide employment to the specially-abled, 2016

• KFC to open 1 specially-abled store for every 10 stores, 2015

Lemon Tree Hotels Ltd. chain actively seeks job applications from persons with disabilities such as speech and hearing impaired, orthopedically handicapped, visually impaired (VI) and intellectual disabled due to Down Syndrome. Lemon Tree Hotels employs people with disabilities (physical and mental), including autism, orthopedic disability, visual or hearing impairment, and downs syndrome, among others. Its Inclusion Programme also covers people who are opportunity deprived i.e. economically and socially marginalized. 

What are the different types of disabilities that we work with?

We started our journey in 2007, with Speech and Hearing Impaired employees. However today we work with many different disabilities: SHI’s (Deaf), Physically Handicapped (Orthopedically Handicapped), Visually Impaired (Low Vision-Partially Blind), Intellectual Disability (Down Syndrome, Slow Learner, Mild MR, IDD) and Autism. 

Lemon Tree has defined the goal as mainstreaming  ‘Opportunity Deprived Indians’ i.e. ODIs into its workforce. ODIs include:

• Physical Disability

  • Speech and Hearing Impaired (SHI)

  • Orthopedically Handicapped (OH)

  • Acid Survivors (AS)

  • Going forward, also Visually Impaired (VI), Low Vision (LV)

• Intellectual Disability

  • Down Syndrome

  • Autism

Building an Inclusive Organization, The Lemon Tree Hotel Way!, 2019

SAP Labs India hired an additional 10 differently-abled in 2016. Recently, it implemented the suggestions that came from a formal accessibility audit of it facilities, such as special evacuation chairs for people in wheelchairs, braille signs across all buildings in the campus.

In 2011, SAP started working with the Autism Society of India to choose candidates with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The company took advantage of the candidate’s photographic memory to perform complex tests, which would involve about 50 steps. When they were  tested against regular engineers, it was found that the regular engineers were right on 80 percent of the occasions, while those with autism were right every time.

By 2020, SAP Aims to have 1% of its global workforce made up of autistic employees who can be fit into relevant IT roles.

Source: 13 Indian Companies creating a positive example of Inclusivity by hiring people with disabilities, UnGender, 2018

The Tata Group employs the differently abled in:

• Titan Industries

• Tanishq and 

• Tata Motors

Titan Industries, Tata group’s watch-making division started employing the disabled in 1980s. The differently abled constitute about 4 percent of Tata’s employees. They are given tasks with low levels of body risk, the least physical movement and minimum verbal communication.

In 2016, Vishal Kumar, a Class-9 school dropout made news when he was appointed as project manager at Tata Motors. Vishal is visually challenged.

Source: 13 Indian Companies creating a positive example of Inclusivity by hiring people with disabilities, UnGender, 2018

Wipro started hiring PwDs in 2008. As of 2016, the company employed 353 PwDs on a regular basis, and 72 PwDs on contractual basis.

The company’s framework is comprehensive and ensure that inclusion becomes an integral part of culture and working. Its hiring policy for PwDs is merit-based across all roles and not just in “identified jobs”. Differently abled employees are given long-term focus.

The IT solutions company provides assistive technology, transport facility and physical infrastructure to its differently-abled employees. It boasts of having PwDs in all level of employees, from managers/supervisors to technical level and entry level employees.

Source: 13 Indian Companies creating a positive example of Inclusivity by hiring people with disabilities, UnGender, 2018