To mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on Dec. 3, Accor has joined the Valuable 500, a global initiative aimed at innovating for disability inclusion.
In 2015, Accor signed the International Labor Organization’s Global Business and Disability Charter. The 10 principles of this charter are aimed at providing a framework to promote equal opportunities, combat discrimination and increase access to workplaces and tools.
The goal of Valuable 500 is to initiate a fundamental change by bringing together 500 companies—the number needed to reach a tipping point—according to the movement’s founder, Caroline Casey.
This step further builds on the actions implemented this year within the group. By working with the Diversity & Inclusion teams, regional teams have strengthened their best practices in this area. An example of this commitment is Accor's “Smart Room” concept for guests with reduced mobility.
On the learning side, the focus has been on integrating trainees and apprentices into Accor establishments. An example is Novotel Shanghai Atlantis, which continued its partnership with the Shanghai Pudong Special Education School. The hotel has already welcomed 163 trainees with disabilities.
The ibis Combo and Novotel Hangar in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, both partners with APAE—an association of parents and friends of people with Down syndrome—employed apprentices accompanied by a sponsor to help facilitate their integration.
MGallery William Inglis in Sydney launched a tailor-made supervised education program, in partnership with the Message Evaluation and Testing Service, to promote the professional integration of students with disabilities.
Special initiatives also were undertaken in terms of recruitment. The Novotel Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport hired multiple employees in collaboration with the National Association of the Deaf in Thailand and the Association for Persons with Special Needs in Singapore.
Other teams opted to promote sign-language learning, such as the ibis Mexico Perinorte, which organized an employee workshop.
Beyond its inclusivity policy, Accor also promotes many associations around the world involved in this cause. Accor and AccorInvest employees raised funds this year with a major sporting challenge organized across regional hubs. From Nov. 9-30, the teams took on several physical challenges to collect as many points as possible. Each team was able to donate a sum of money to local initiatives. The event raised €14,000 in total and aided 15 associations.
A version of this story appeared on Hotel Management's sister site Travel Agent Central.