22 January, 2021, Bengaluru: The Office of Diversity and Inclusion at IIM Bangalore hosted a conference on ‘Careers for Persons with Disabilities’ on January 17 (Sunday), 2021.
During his welcome address, Prof. Rishikesha T Krishnan, Director, IIM Bangalore, said that over the years students with disability are getting much better support at IIMB and other institutions but several challenges remained. “One issue we repeatedly hear from our alumni and alumni of other institutes is that while these students get their first job from campus, their subsequent career advancement is not on par with peers who join the same companies or in similar roles”. He hoped the conference would help us move in the right direction.
The keynote address was delivered by Mahantesh G Kivadasannavar, Founder, Samarthanam Trust and former President of the World Blind Cricket Ltd. He discussed how Persons with Disability are equally capable of performing most of the tasks. Education, technology and building aspirations are very crucial for them as many such students come from challenged backgrounds, and most of the time they are neglected as their parents cannot support them financially. If they are exposed to the right opportunities and their talent is identified at a young age, they will start building aspirations and work towards getting employed. Schools and universities need to be sensitized as every student with disability has a different requirement and it is important to identify and create a support system for them.
“Education and technology are the keys to build confidence in persons with disabilities so that they can overcome the challenges and continue to perform well”. He stressed on the need for them to acquire new skills at the right time to be successful in their careers. He concluded by saying if we provide encouragement and create more opportunities for people with disabilities, disability will lose its first three letters.
The keynote address was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Prof. Srinivasan Rangan, Chair, Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, and faculty in the Finance & Accounting area of IIMB.
The panellists were: Ankit Rajiv Jindal, Marketing and Diversity expert; Madhumita Venkataraman, Founder, Diversity Dialogues; Michael Sequeria, PGP alumnus and National Awardee for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities 2012, and Vineet Saraiwala, PGP alumnus, Founder, Atypical Advantage.
The panel discussion focused on if there was a glass ceiling for persons with disabilities as they try to advance in their careers and some solutions that can come by changing the way how employers behave, what employees could do, and what educational institutions could do.
Key takeaways from the discussion
Almost all the panellists were of the view that a glass ceiling does exist. When it comes to employees with disability, they are seen as disabled first, and then as employees.
Major challenge for employees with disability is around career and career progression and that is happening for multiple reasons. One of them being job mapping exercise at extensive level. When persons with disabilities are hired, there is a sympathy or inspiration angle. Anything they do is inspiration and often in the initial years managers refrain from providing feedback. It is important for employees to have a conversation with their managers to have a very clear career plan about how they aspire to progress. They need to take control of their careers and chart out a path. It is very important to speak up, be goal-oriented and competitive, and seek help from mentors.
One way to break the glass ceiling is to broaden the base. If more people come at the entry level, there will be more people progressing at some level. Persons with Disabilities need to shatter the glass ceiling and step up their game and come to institutes like IIMs, IITs, etc. and be the role models.
It is important to increase the sensitization at the educational institutes as when students from the institutes acquire senior leadership positions, they will know that inclusion is the key.
There are three pillars for employers to handle the issue: culture; process, policies, infrastructure, and talent. Companies need to look at it holistically at different levels on how to bring in persons with disabilities. Organizations should be more open about best practice sharing with institutes and creating more thought leadership. There needs to be analysis of career progression at the Office of Diversity and Inclusion level and preventive measures need to be taken.
The panellists concluded that persons with disabilities should build big goals for themselves and work hard towards achieving the same. They should be vocal, take pride in being a person with disability and ask for what they want.