Tips To Make Your Company Easily Accessible To Visually Impaired Persons

18th Jul 2024

Are you certain that your establishment satisfies all requirements for providing adequate access to VIPs (visually impaired persons)? Positive feelings experienced by all consumers are a crucial element of any business's growth and success. Thus, there are various ways an employer may render the office suitable for visually impaired folks, despite the scary nature of accessibility in the workplace.

As society has developed, it is no longer acceptable to ignore the demands of any group within the community. Employing people with impairments might actually be quite advantageous for your business. Additionally, people with disabilities provide distinctive and varied viewpoints, are terrific problem-solvers, and are a fantastic asset to any business.

The executive leadership of the company is accountable for ensuring that visually impaired personnel have access to essential resources. There are a few standard ways to make the workplace accessible to those who are blind or visually impaired. Let's examine what businesses can do to continue to give visually impaired employees the tools they need to perform at their best. The best accessibility advice for persons with visual impairments is provided here.

Make Use Of Helpful Technology

Thanks to contemporary technology, businesses have a wealth of tools at their disposal to provide allowances for workers who are blind or visually impaired. Professionals with visual impairments can easily use electronic devices such as personal computers and printers at their various workplaces thanks to assistive technology. Additionally, considering that computers are a necessary component of practically every business today, assistive technology is crucial. Types of helpful technologies for people with vision impairments at the workplace include audiobooks, audio-to-text software, digital recorders, optoelectronic reading systems, magnifying gadgets, and braille screens that can be updated.

Create A Visible And Secure Public Walking route

Through the use of visual and tactile contrast, the route from the entryway to the outdoor seating area to the building's reception area must be simple to identify. Otherwise, blind or vision-impaired persons can have trouble getting there, particularly if the area is huge and lacks clues. After that, we may experiment with various types of flooring, such as gravel, bare concrete mixture, resin, flagstones, and grasses to find out the ideal choice for VIPs. You can add directional or guiding tactile pavement from Floorsafe Australia if there isn't any natural tactile contrast.

Be aware that without a line of direction to help them orient themselves, visually impaired persons cannot walk properly. Consequently, the term "walking route" must be understood in its broadest meaning, which includes all the area that is available to road users and not simply a thin, 36 to 56 inches broad virtual strip.

Ensure That Visually Impaired Persons Can Easily Access Your Company’s Website

It's crucial to make your social media pages and the company’s website readily available to demonstrate to your staff that accessibility is something you care about on a daily basis, not just when it benefits them. The company's employee portals, discussion boards, as well as other internet resources should also be made fully accessible to those with visual impairments. Depending on the business, the visually impaired individual, and the circumstance, this may be achieved using assistive technology such as magnification devices or screen-reading software. In any event, a crucial component of workplace accessibility initiatives is making any and all internet content accessible.

Make It Simple To Find And Identify The Front Gate

You've already completed a significant portion of the task if the walkway that leads to the main entryway is clearly defined and easily recognizable. Those who are visually impaired must be able to verify their whereabouts at any given point in time. Signage with bold lettering and strong color contrast can be installed for people who still have some vision. For those who are illiterate, an acoustic signal enables users to use a normal remote control or a smartphone to activate a spoken message notifying them of the company's name.

Ensure Visually Impaired People Can Read Written Content

Documents of any form must be available to VIPs in addition to internet resources of every sort. Ensure that all papers, including those pertaining to employment, invoicing, and everything else in between, are accessible to employees who are blind or visually impaired by providing them with braille, big print, audio copies, or both. Workers should also be at liberty to request documents in whatever formats they find comfortable to interact with. Applications like InDesign and Adobe Acrobat make it easy for one to fill out forms easily. Be careful to add tags when creating editable PDFs so that screen readers can read them.

Provide A Visible And Accessible Welcome Area

Persons who are blind or visually impaired rely heavily on the front desk staff and other people to help them navigate a facility and use its amenities. Your welcome desk should be placed as near to the main entryway as feasibly as possible to make access easier. With sufficient illumination and visible contrasts, it should be simple to identify. If getting there requires traversing a wide area, we advise setting up a guided trail to make it simpler for each person to establish their bearings.

A visually impaired person finds it challenging to wait in line and keep track of time to understand when their number is up. In such instances, you can use queue management systems. Therefore, it is advised that those with vision impairments be granted priority access, much as those who have trouble standing.

Provide Amenable Scheduling And The Possibility Of Remote Work

The majority of persons who have vision impairment don't drive, thus they might rely on alternate transit options or public transportation. Please remember that these people's commutes to work could be governed by the timetables of public transit. As a result, offering flexible schedule options at your organization is a fantastic method to ensure that they aren't mistreated if they arrive late to work because they took public transit. Another alternative is a hybrid schedule, in which workers spend an allocated number of days of the week in the office and work from home on the other days. A remote work alternative, which has grown in popularity recently, is also frequently a wise decision.

Wrapping Up

It is advised to build directional pavement or guiding routes to help visually impaired persons navigate complicated settings. Tactile indicators, such as those obtained from established names like Floorsafe Australia are vital in making this possible. Contact us for more information.