Though companies have taken steps towards providing more inclusive and equitable environments for employees, there still is work to be done.
A recent report from global professional services company Deloitte provides a look into the experiences of 10,000 professionals with disabilities, chronic health conditions or neurodivergence across 20 countries. The findings highlight a needed call for action and an opportunity for technology to help bridge existing gaps.
At Verbit, we’re committed to making workplaces more inclusive through a wide range of transcription, captioning and other access solutions. From word-for-word transcripts to live captioning to meeting translations to summaries from focus groups, our solutions are purpose-built to deliver on each company’s unique business needs.
Below is a snapshot of what Deloitte’s data shows and as well as ways Verbit can help support progress.
Workplace accommodations are often denied or delayed
Deloitte’s Disability Inclusion@Work report showed that only one in four employees who disclosed their disability actually requested an accommodation. Of those who did, nearly 75% faced at least one denial, often for requests tied to communication needs, like assistive software or alternative formats.
How Verbit helps: Our AI-powered transcription and captioning can be deployed quickly and affordably, helping organizations and enterprises fulfill common accommodation requests, such as accessible meeting formats and note-taking, without red tape or delays. Verbit’s platform also integrates easily with existing tools, minimizing any potential pain points for IT and HR teams.
Remote work helps but isn’t widely available
Nearly half of respondents said their home environment is more accessible than their workplace yet only 9% were allowed to work remotely full-time, with some fearing that working from home would harm their career growth.
How Verbit helps: Verbit makes remote and hybrid meetings more inclusive, providing easy-to-use, simple-to-set up real-time captions and transcripts that keep everyone aligned regardless of location. With Verbit, remote employees stay fully engaged and supported, without missing out on vital conversations.
Inaccessible events create missed opportunities
A whopping 60% of respondents reported missing work events or meetings due to accessibility barriers, including inaccessible restrooms, lack of agenda breaks or venues that didn’t accommodate assistive needs.
How Verbit helps: With Verbit, companies can make both in-person and virtual events more accessible, offering live captioning, transcriptions and post-event recordings. These tools ensure that all employees can participate in the “moments that matter,” from all-hands meetings to networking sessions and training events.
Non-inclusive behavior persists — and often goes unreported
Though more than 40% of respondents experienced microaggressions, harassment or bullying in the workplace, only half reported these behaviors. Common reasons included fear of retaliation and doubt that the issue would be taken seriously.
How Verbit helps: While Verbit can’t solve cultural issues alone, our accessibility tools help foster inclusive communication and reduce isolation, particularly for employees who may otherwise feel left out. When employees feel supported and able to fully participate, workplace culture shifts for the better.
What employers can do
Deloitte’s report outlines several key steps companies can take to enable disability inclusion.
- Make disability inclusion a visible leadership priority
- Empower managers to support individual strengths
- Embed accessibility into daily operations
- Ensure accommodation processes are clear, timely and stigma-free
- Create a safe environment for reporting non-inclusive behaviors
At Verbit, we’re proud to help employers take real steps toward these goals. Our platform is built to help companies scale their accessibility efforts quickly, affordably and with confidence.
Building an inclusive workplace
Whether you’re enhancing your inclusion strategy or supporting employees with evolving needs, Verbit provides the tools to make accessibility actionable. Our transcription, captioning and note-taking solutions support compliance, foster inclusion and help all employees thrive.
Our enterprise solutions include:
- Live captioning for internal meetings, webinars and training sessions to keep participants engaged, improve comprehension and make all presentations more accessible.
- Venue Live — powered by our proprietary automatic speech recognition technology, CaptivateTM — provides captions for in-person, online or hybrid events like all-hands meetings and conferences and delivers on the needs of live, fast-paced and challenging event and streaming environments.
- Post-production captions that make recorded meetings and events accessible to anyone who needs to access content with verbatim, customizable post-production captions and transcripts.
- ‘Capture for Enterprise,’ which uses Verbit’s ASR technology to help enterprise organizations run meetings more efficiently by turning spoken content into structured, actionable insights without delays or heavy post-processing.
- Live translation and multi-language subtitles enables businesses to speak to larger audiences and engage global teams in real-time by translating events and meetings to additional languages as they happen.
- Audio description on video content for employees and customers who are blind or with low vision.
- Language dubbing for promo videos, thought leadership content and training sessions.
- Note-taking capabilities that transform meetings, interviews, event sessions and speeches into helpful, organized notes and summaries.
Learn how Verbit’s enterprise solutions can support your workplace inclusion efforts.
