According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly seven million persons with a disability were employed in 2022. Chances are you have one or more people with disabilities currently working for you.
Are you doing everything possible to meet their needs at the office?
If you answered no, you’re not alone.
Despite stringent accessibility requirements like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), many companies remain non-compliant. ADA lawsuits have soared to an all-time high in recent years.
Remember, even privately run businesses that do not rely on the general public or government funding are still bound by the ADA so long as they employ 15 or more people.
Private Companies Need to Meet the Needs of Employees With Disabilities
The ADA covers more than just physical access and employment opportunities for people with disabilities. With the introduction of Section 508, accessibility for electronic media and information technology is also needed.
Aside from meeting compliance requirements, new work models and a highly competitive labor market make it critical for companies to do everything possible to enhance the employee experience. This includes improving accessibility in the office environment.
Access is especially important post-covid. Many employees returning to the office face shared office spaces or flex spaces where designated desks no longer exist. Some employees are coming to the office for the first time, having been hired while their companies were fully remote. Others whose employers relocated or downsized office space may need to familiarize themselves with their new setting.
Whatever the situation, you must make it easy for people, especially employees with disabilities, to find and use your office space.
Workplace Apps Help Support Accessibility Needs
Fortunately, several workplace apps are available that help companies support their employees, both with and without disabilities. Here are some apps to consider using:
Wayfinding Apps
Having wayfinding apps for your employees is like having Google Maps for your company’s workspaces. It makes it simple for everyone to find spaces, offices, and people throughout your facility. With digital maps and step-by-step directions, wayfinding apps can help those with disabilities find the most accessible route to their desired location. Maps can highlight wheelchair ramps, elevators, accessible bathrooms, and more. Wayfinding can also be extended to visitors and include custom routing and digital sign-in to streamline building access. Popular apps include Purple, Serraview, and Evelity.
Desk Reservation Apps
Desk booking systems like Envoy and Skedda provide employees with an easy way to reserve accessible conference areas, desks, and shared workspaces. In addition, a space booking app can help teams better plan meetings, ensuring coworkers with disabilities can comfortably join.
Mental Health Apps
The post-pandemic return to the office has increased mental health needs. According to a McKinsey survey, one out of three employees said their return to the workplace negatively impacted their mental health. For those with a disability, the impact can be far worse as research finds they tend to experience greater levels of depression and anxiety.
Many companies now subscribe to mental health apps to give their employees anytime, on-demand emotional support. There are a variety of options to choose from. Apps like ginger provide access to licensed mental health coaches, therapists, and psychiatrists, while Headspace for Work includes meditations and exercises for stress, focus, sleep, and movement.
Smart Parking Apps
Apps like Wayleadr or Parkable provide parking navigation and space reservation capabilities to reduce employee frustrations when coming to the office. For workers with disabilities, a smart parking app can help them find or reserve an accessible parking space, alleviating commuting stress and fear of being late for work.
Bring Systems and Apps Together With a Digital Engagement Platform
While these apps can provide much-needed support to employees, they can lead to a disjointed and poor user experience.
A report from Asana reveals that the average U.S. employee changes through 13 apps, 30 times per day. Employees often find themselves devoting excessive time during the workday searching for and switching between the various tools their workplace affords. This process wastes employees’ time, negatively affects productivity, and can exacerbate stress and feeling overwhelmed.
A popular solution to this issue is a workplace experience platform like the Modo Workplace Engagement Platform. This SaaS-based solution seamlessly integrates multiple single-function apps, custom modules, and corporate systems into a unified, branded company app. These are all accessible with single sign-on simplifying app access for users and enabling your company to enforce password security rules.
This type of platform can also integrate with legacy technologies. Bringing systems with suboptimal UIs and poor accessibility into a container that supports assistive technologies such as screen readers, magnifiers, and voice recognition software ensures these systems are compliant with WCAG 2.0 AA guidelines, U.S. Section 508, and European EN 301 549 regulations.
Finally, digital engagement platforms like Modo Workplace enable you to build custom modules for your branded workplace app. You can use these modules to make company resources and information more easily accessible to all employees–versus getting buried on the company intranet or lost in their email boxes.
Learn more about how a workplace app can support your employees. Contact us today for a free demonstration of the Modo Workplace Engagement Platform.