Companies have a role to play in building an inclusive society. Over and above the legal obligations, which since 1987 have required companies with more than 20 employees to employ people with disabilities, the products and services they design contribute to the creation of an environment that is favourable, or unfavourable, to all. In practice, inclusive companies act on two levels: in their human resource policies and in the design of their products and services. And this does not stop at people with disabilities, rather it concerns all those who may be excluded by the company. The white paper produced by the Observatoire de l’innovation inclusive, the APF France handicap TechLab and the Technology for Change Chair at Institut Polytechnique de Paris looks at all aspects of inclusiveness in companies.
This work highlights the different groups concerned by inclusive innovation. These include women, people with disabilities, the elderly, carers, people in precarious or excluded situations, people of foreign origin, LGBTQ+ people, children and young people in general. All these groups of people can be excluded by the company. Either because they suffer discrimination, or because the company’s products and services do not meet their needs.
To carry out this study, we interviewed people working in human resources departments or in research and development, design and marketing. Thirty major companies opened their doors to us (including BNP Paribas, La Poste, Decathlon, Renault, Kingfisher and Toyota) and 37 people agreed to give us lengthy interviews.
An HR paradox
Human resources departments are familiar with initiatives aimed at people with disabilities, and sometimes at women and the elderly. But our analysis reveals a paradoxical situation: although their inclusion policies are long-standing, they are not generally part of an inclusive process like the one seen in R&D, because they are mostly designed without the involvement of the people affected.
The organisations involved in implementing these policies vary. Sometimes they have dedicated teams, sometimes they have a focal point, and sometimes all their teams are committed to the issue. Organisations play an important role in these services. They act as a link between the people affected and those who are a long way from the workforce. Without these third-party players, recruiters may struggle to find them.
There are also obstacles specific to organisations in this approach, such as the feeling of inequity or favouritism, perceived by managers who have to make adaptations or by teams. Teams may find it difficult to identify specific needs, and managers are subject to the confidentiality of personal situations.
Evolving design practices
Inclusive design is not subject to any regulatory constraints, with the exception of digital content and elements of the built environment. It is primarily concerned with people with disabilities, with a focus on visual and motor disabilities, as well as the elderly. Hearing, cognitive, and intellectual disabilities are less often taken into account. Developers see these as non-priorities.
It may seem strange to include women in inclusive design approaches. Yet many everyday objects and tools are not adapted to women’s morphology or strength. Safety equipment is a striking example. No smaller shoe sizes, arms or legs that are too long, gloves that are too large… Even when labelled as mixed, this equipment is designed with the male body type as the norm. And yet, when they are not adapted, they endanger the health of female employees.
The vast majority of companies practising inclusive design use participatory design methods. They mobilise panels of people with disabilities to have a direct say in the design of products and services, through focus groups or qualitative or quantitative studies. Here again, the organisations help to contact the participants and adapt the methods. APF France Handicap’s TechLab, through its unit dedicated to inclusive innovation, has developed a methodology dedicated to co-design with people with disabilities.
From the teams’ point of view, these participative approaches contribute to the acceptability of the process and to measuring the strategic interest of a market, sometimes perceived as niche. Decathlon is conducting a study into the morphology of disabled people. Aptar, an American distribution systems company, has drawn on the needs of disabled people to improve the ergonomics of its beauty packaging. Finally, the Seb group is designing a range of household appliances with improved ergonomics thanks to its inclusive innovation approach.
Inclusive innovation is gaining ground
Inclusive design develops by opportunity, by diffusion or by systematisation, when these companies decide to transform all their innovation processes. La Poste, for example, has been using panels of disabled employees to test the Group’s products and services since 2019. Public service companies often set the example. The State has powerful leverage through public procurement.
A number of practices can help to spread inclusive innovation practices. The first involves raising awareness among employees. They need to understand the exclusion created by products, services and practices (both HR and organisational) before committing to an approach.
The second practice is employee involvement. For example, by inviting them to volunteer to test the Group’s products and services or to give feedback on their needs.
The third concerns the credibility of the approach. This is achieved by having support at management level and by formalising practices through the drafting of charters, guides or company agreements. For example, Groupe SEB has drawn up a Good design playbook to promote the results of a partnership with APF France handicap. This is used by the teams to ensure that the approach continues.
The fourth is to be opportunistic. Small actions, such as increasing the contrast or fonts in internal documents, can initiate a change of attitude and open up a dialogue on inclusion issues.
