A. Hearing ImpairmentScenario: A hearing impaired person is working at a petrol station. His duty is to put the specified quantity of fuel into vehicles. However, he is unable to find out the exact quantity sometimes and this leads to customer dissatisfaction.Solution: Give a notepad and pen to the hearing impaired employee and ask him/her to request the customer to write down the exact quantity required. Most customers are more than happy to cooperate and write down the quantity. (Mr. Surinder Singh, MD – Shell India Marketing Pvt Ltd, 2008)124Scenario: A hearing impaired employee needs to converse with his fellow employees sitting at other locales.Solution: Instant Messengers like Google Talk, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and Microsoft Communicator for Businesses are available. Chatting is perhaps the most common internet activity in the world after browsing. The hearing impaired person can chat with his colleagues sitting immediately around him or in other locations, both domestic and international, with the help of the Instant Messengers. Scenario: A manufacturing company has a large number of employees with quite a few hearing impaired individuals. This company has its own transport system. Sometimes, these hearing impaired employees face problems in finding out the exact time when their bus is going to pick them up. There is a landline hotline for the same, but it is not accessible by hearing impaired employees.Solution: Get a mobile connection with SMS (Short Message Service) facility. Have this mobile number assigned to the person who mans the landline. Any hearing impaired employee can simply send a message to this number with a query (eg. location, time), to which he can get a SMS response.Scenario: I am running a shop and would like to hire a hearing impaired employee who doesnt use hearing aids. We sometimes require him to go from one section to another. This is currently not possible due to his hearing loss.Solution: Give him a personal paging device with vibration facility which he can wear on the belt or wrist. Every time it vibrates, he can simply come to you for instructions and thus go to the appropriate section.Scenario: An employee with hearing impairment who is non verbal wants to attend training with other employees.Solution: Hire a sign language interpreter or get a person to transcribe for the training, based on the persons need. Trainer should also be informed to provide as much information as possible using a suitable visual medium.B. Visual ImpairmentScenario: I would like to hire a visually impaired person as part of my human resources team. However, this involves a lot of computer work like power point presentations, word documents and excels documents.Solution: Visually impaired people can work on computer. Check with the candidate whether she/he uses any assistive technology to access computer. If yes, install the necessary software (screen reader/magnifier) in the desktop/laptop, based on her/his need.Scenario: There is a visually impaired employee in a media company which involves reading large amounts of printed materials. Since a visually impaired person cannot see, how can I ask him to do this task?Solution: There are hardware and software solutions for the same. Provide him with a document scanner and desktop machine. He can scan the paper on his own, save this onto his or her desktop. He can then hear the content in audio format using a screen-reading software.C. Dexterity ImpairmentScenario: An employee in my grocery store has only one arm. His job is tostock items into their respective shelves. This involves moving large quantities of stock from the store room to the various corners of the store. I find that he gets tired due to the workload.Solution: Give him a trolley to move his items. This will reduce his workload considerably. Also give him a mini-step ladder to enable easier access to higher parts of the shelves.D. Learning DisabilityScenario: Because of low reading skills, a child care assistant with a learning disability has difficulty preparing lessons based on childrens books.Solution: The employee is given a videotape of various childrens stories.Scenario: A quick service restaurant grill operator has a severe learning disability. He cannot read and can recognise only specific single letters on orders for hamburgers.Solution: Condiment bins are coded with the first letter of the item so that a worker can match the orders to the bins. In addition, he is taught three key words (only, none, and plain) through flash card repetition.E. Physical DisabilityScenario: A technical editor in the publishing industry has a spinal cordinjury and needs to work lying on his back.Solution: A work station is provided that enables the editor to work on a computer while in a supine position. Also a work from home option can be provided to such an employee.Scenario: A department store retail clerk with multiple sclerosis uses a scooter and has problems with stamina.Solution: The employee is reassigned to a department on the first floor, provided with space for the scooter, given a sit/lean stool at the register and scheduled for first shift with every third day off.Scenario: An electro-mechanical assembly crew member acquires a cumulative wrist/hand trauma disorder which affects handling and finger dexterity. This decreases his ability to use hand tools for the assembly of electro-mechanical devices.Solution: A rechargeable electric screwdriver is purchased, to reduce repetitious wrist twisting. These can be subsequently purchased for all employees as a preventative measure.Scenario: An airline programmer/analyst has post-polio fatigue brought on by stress. She/he cannot be on call 24 hours a day and work overtime as mandated by the job-requirement.Solution: Waiver of the requirements of 24-hour on-call duty and overtime. The employee works the hours prescribed for older adult workers. F. Mental IllnessScenario: An administrative assistant in a social service agency has bipolar disorder. Her duties include typing, word processing, filing and answering the telephone. Her limitations include difficulties with concentration and short-term memory.Solution: Provide her with assistance in organising her work. Also provide a dual headset for her telephone which allows her to listen to music when not talking on the telephone. This accommodation will minimise distractions, increase concentration and keep the employee relaxed. Also, meetings need to be held with the supervisor once a week to discuss workplace issues. These meetings are recorded so she can remember the issues that are discussed. She is then able to replay the information to improve her memory.Scenario: Inability to screen out environmental stimuli such as sounds, sights, or smells, which distract you. For example, an employee may have a hard time working next to a noisy printer or in a high-traffic area.Solution: Move the printer away from the work area; allow the employee to wear headphones, playing soft music while they work; install high partitions around the persons desk. (EmployAbility)125