5th edition of the SPIE “Disability Awareness Month”: Achievements and business activities to aid people with disabilities in their everyday life

5th edition of the SPIE 'Disability Awareness Month': Achievements and business activities to aid people with disabilities in their everyday life

Cergy, September 26th, 2017 - Throughout October, the SPIE group is holding its fifth edition of the 'Disability Awareness Month'. This year, SPIE is raising its employees' awareness of the problems people with disabilities face, by sharing examples of the practical achievements the Group has made with its customers.

Following the fourth event dedicated to innovative practices for improving the integration of people with disabilities, SPIE opted this year to present activities that encourage employment of workers with disabilities and that make their everyday life easier, whether as employees of SPIE or not. SPIE has committed to pursuing an ambitious approach for the benefit of people with disabilities, including internal initiatives and initiatives involving its customers.

SPIE's achievements for the benefit of all disabilities

In order to assist people with disabilities, SPIE is developing a wide range of solutions for its customers in its main business sectors, addressing several types of disability: sensory disabilities (hearing and sight), motor disabilities and incapacitating illnesses. In the case of the latter, for example, SPIE is installing heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems to improve respiratory comfort for people suffering from respiratory diseases or severe allergies. SPIE is also involved in ensuring numerous buildings meet required standards, making them accessible to people with reduced mobility. SPIE's know-how in multi-technical services in the areas of energy and communications is a real asset for deploying innovative solutions, such as platforms offering visio-interpretation in French sign language that enable deaf people to use the telephone, and a portable induction loop system. This portable system allows sound to be transmitted from a speaker's microphone, public address equipment, or TV set, to the hearing aid or cochlear implant of someone who has hearing difficulties, who can thus hear it without being disturbed by any background noise. Whatever the type of disability, SPIE's goal is clear: to transform everyday life for people with disabilities and to take them into consideration in all its projects.

'Disability Month': awareness-raising initiatives on over 70 SPIE sites

'Disability Month', which SPIE has held for the last 5 years, is the culmination of initiatives pursued throughout the year to raise awareness of these problems amongst all its employees. The disability representatives from each subsidiary will run quizzes, inter-company challenges, sports sessions for the disabled, workshops, photo competitions, etc. at over 70 sites. A quiz on SPIE's achievements and business activities will also be sent out to all units, on work sites as well as via the Group's e-learning platform.

The objectives are to present the SPIE 'Disability Policy' to employees and highlight the achievements made by the various subsidiaries in the context of projects requiring specific arrangements or facilities for people with disabilities.