NOT FOR PROFIT:An event in Dublin's Aviva recently, a collaboration between McDonald's and Kanchi, emphasised the business sense in being accessible, writes BARRY McCALL
NAMED AFTER THE elephant that took visually impaired social entrepreneur Caroline Casey on a 1,000km fundraising trek across India in 2000, Kanchi is a not-for-profit disability organisation that works to change mindsets and behaviours and promote the value of disabled people to society.
The organisation is based on the belief that the business community has the greatest capacity to lead this change. When business values the disability community as customers, talent, and part of the communities they serve, disabled people will be more included and have access to products and services that provide a way of life many of us take for granted.
The Kanchi Ability Network was established last year as the first business network in Ireland aimed at supporting business leaders in delivering value through the inclusion of people with disabilities in their organisations. The network enables Kanchi to reach many more organisations around the country and is open to all companies, of all sizes and at all stages of their disability policy development. It aims to turn thinking into action, becoming a resource forum and essential tool to all organisations aiming to become champions of ability.
This month saw the first in a series of bi-monthly events hosted by Kanchi Network founding members aimed at developing and improving awareness of the need to provide better services to people with disabilities. Hosted by McDonald’s, the “It’s not a big deal . . . it just makes business sense” event in the Aviva Stadium on April 28th brought together business people from various sectors.
“For us this was an opportunity to meet like-minded companies and share experiences,” says McDonald’s human resources director, Michele Ryan. “We have already learned the value of employing people with disabilities and we have always been a restaurant for everyone, so when you consider 400,000 in Ireland have disabilities, this is a market with significant spending power. From a business point of view, we are all operating in a difficult climate – if you are not embracing the full community, you are missing out. We have hired people with disabilities since opening in Ireland in 1975 but one of the areas we may not have focused on is access for the full community. So we started to ask our customers with disabilities what they needed, we listened and we have been acting on that.”
Speakers on the night included McDonald’s managing director John Atherton, McDonald’s franchisee Kevin McDermott who has won two O2 Ability awards for his work in this area, and entrepreneur and TV “dragon” Sean Gallagher, who gave the keynote address.
“From my personal experience of life, business companies and organisations that value the abilities of a person rather than their disabilities are enriched,” Gallagher told the audience. “As someone with congenital cataracts, I now spend a large proportion of my time promoting awareness of disability and what employers can to do create employment opportunities for people with disabilities. The work of Kanchi, supported by organisations like McDonald’s, is hugely positive and sends the right message to the public as well as to potential employers.”
Reflecting on the event and on the work of McDonald’s in the area of disability, John Atherton says the company was “really fortunate to come across Kanchi”. “We had been working on it for quite a while and had made some faltering steps,” he explains. “But when we met up with Kanchi we became soulmates, they gave us the clarity we needed and we were very pleased to become a founder member of the Kanchi Network and host the first of these events. These events are very much about changing attitudes to ability and focusing on what people like you and me can do. It is simply a case of treating people with disabilities the same as you treat your other customers. About 10 per cent of our staff have disabilities and that mirrors the overall population. We want to make sure we are equally inclusive when it comes to our customers – it’s a happy marriage between the right thing to do and the right thing for the business.”
The business case is clear, according to Atherton. “It makes business sense to have our restaurants fully accessible; to have ramps to allow access for wheelchairs and parents using pushchairs, to have hearing loops, to have menus in Braille and so on. These measures all maximise selling opportunities.
“Also, as Michele Ryan often points out, people with disabilities aren’t just individuals, they are sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, friends, and so on – they are part of larger communities and they help influence the decisions on where they will eat. If they have had a good experience in McDonald’s, that’s clearly good for us.”
The overall aim of the event is to get other businesses to understand this business case. “Our aim for every company to become an ability company,” says Ryan. “Kanchi has strengthened our organisation and all our franchisees are fully behind our efforts to make our restaurants the most accessible in Ireland. By the end of this year every restaurant will have accessible doors, hearing loops, Braille signage and large format Braille menus. We have also including disability awareness as part of our normal staff training.”
Atherton concludes by reiterating the main message of the event. “It really is a happy marriage, it’s something you can justify to an accountant and it is the right thing to do for people with disabilities.”
