Accessibility is about improving access to goods, services and facilities for people with disabilities. This includes visual, physical, cognitive, and hearing disabilities. Accessibility is important to our business because we employ people with disabilities, our customers employ people with disabilities, and people with disabilities use our products.
Our Equal Opportunities Policy confirms Cisco's commitment to employing people regardless of disabilities.
We design our offices, labs, and systems to accommodate employees with disabilities. The Accessibility Initiative provides a framework for our products, documentation, and Websites so they can be used by employees and customers with disabilities.
We work with multiple organizations to enhance our facilities, increase awareness of disability issues in the workplace, and promote employment opportunities for people with disabilities:
- We are a sponsor of the National Business and Disability Council, the leading U.S. resource center for companies looking at ways to integrate people with disabilities into the workplace.
- We have a 10-year relationship with Project HIRED, a California-based organization that specializes in helping people with disabilities find employment. We have employed a number of people referred to us by the organization, and use their experience to help with training and consulting on accessibility initiatives and workplace modifications.
- We have participated in the American Association of People with Disabilities' National Disability Mentoring Day. Our employees with disabilities acted as mentors for students and veterans with disabilities, teaching them about information technology career opportunities.
Also in FY2005, we commissioned a study by the U.K. Employers Forum on Disability to assess our approach to accessibility at our sites in the United Kingdom. The survey looked at our accessibility policies, products, facilities, recruitment, and training and development. The findings will help us benchmark our performance, identify areas for improvement, and establish a framework for implementing its recommendations.
