Technology has a way of equalizing the playing field. It helps students get quality education despite the lack of finances and the distance from good schools. It also allows small businesses to explore advertising campaigns online without spending too much money. It puts them in the same field as the big players.
But probably the most inspiring of all the benefits of technology is the fact that it equalizes the playing field for disabled but talented professionals. This is what we discovered from an inspiring story from TheStar.com – an online publication in Malaysia.
The article tells us of a story about a company that hires talented individuals despite their disabilities. Genashtim Innovative Learning is a company registered in Singapore that offers “online English language coaching services.” Being a company that offer most of its services through the Internet, the company is able to hire most of its manpower remotely. This means the company have employees that are not physically present in an office. They are scattered all over the world and are able to work as a team via the Internet. That allowed the owner, Thomas Ng, to hire 50 disabled professionals to help run his company.
Mr. Ng believes that even disabled people have a place in the corporate world. This is what led him to hire a human resource manager from the Philippines who is both blind and disfigured after a car accident. Or an operations assistant from Malaysia that has cerebral palsy and can only use one finger. They also have a process manager who is paralyzed from neck down. The company hired talented individuals from Malaysia, China, Jamaica, Singapore, Cambodia and Vietnam – all of them have disabilities.
According to Thomas Ng, “One of the main problems of PWDs is commuting, especially in less developed countries. If you take that problem away, they can function just as well as the able-bodied. So we have a work from home model at Genashtim.”
The company offers eLearning services and the employees only have to switch on their computer at home and coach students remotely. All of this is made possible by technology. A deaf person can work online because they can see and type in a computer. That compensates for the communication problem left by their disability.
Because of this opportunity brought about by technology, there is a new group of professionals that may even be more reliable and productive than able-bodied individuals. PWDs value their work more because they know that their options are limited. That will result in an employee that is not only talented but also loyal, reliable and hard working.
Thanks to the Internet, reliable mobile devices and talent, disabilities will no longer be a hindrance for people to get corporate jobs. As long as entrepreneurs understand the skills that they need and how to use technology to compensate for what is lacking, a team of skilled individuals will always be available to help a company succeed.
The bottom line of this article is this: technology open doors for others to function despite their physical imperfections. And we all know that technology only gets more advanced over time. Who knows how it will shape the corporate world in the future?