Finalist category: Workplace Inclusion Award
Finalist, Workplace Inclusion Award, 2023
DASS Solutions began life as a vision to create truly inclusive spaces. The collective life experience of its founders, Elie Ghoussoub and Mike Moudawar, growing up in Lebanon in the 80’s gave them a deep desire to implement accessibility at the city planning stage of urban development.
DAAS solutions utilises technology in several ways to improve inclusion within the workplace: Accessibility training, accessible websites, wayfinding solutions, Tactile Ground Surface Indicators (TGSI), hearing loops. BrightSign gloves, and more.
- “Accessibility Training: We are using technology to provide accessibility training to employees. This can involve using online courses, webinars, or other digital resources to help employees understand how to create inclusive work environments and interact with colleagues with disabilities.
- Accessible Websites: This involve using web development tools and software that comply with web accessibility guidelines, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), to ensure that people with disabilities can access and use the company’s website.
- Wayfinding Solutions: In government owned academies in the region we have installed, digital wayfinding solutions to their premises to help students, staff and visitors with visual impairment to navigate their ways better in the academies ‘premises.
- Tactile Ground Surface Indicators (TGSI): We have installed TGSIs to improve accessibility for people with visual impairments. TGSI are raised tactile markings that can be placed on walkways and other surfaces to help people with vision loss navigate more easily.
- Hearing Loops: We have installed hearing loops in meeting rooms or other common areas in business premises to improve accessibility for people with hearing impairments. Hearing loops are a type of assistive listening system that uses magnetic fields to transmit sound directly to hearing aids or cochlear implants.
- BrightSign Gloves: We have promoted and used the gloves to help sign language users translate their signs to audio. This has been used in several non-profit organizations in the region and have been aggressively promoted in the hospitality industry focused businesses not only to be more inclusive to clients but to add more sign language user individuals to the workforce.
By using technology in these ways, our projects aim to create inclusive work environment for people with disabilities, which can ultimately improve productivity, morale, and diversity within the workplace.”
