Australia Post launches first ever Accessibility Action Plan
Australia Post has launched a three-year plan to improve its engagement with and support for customers and employees who have a disability. The company said its first ever Accessibility Action Plan, unveiled last week, would underpin a stepping up of efforts to improve the quality of life for the one in five of Australians living with a disability.
The plan, which runs up to 2015, focuses on three areas – improving prospects for disabled staff, making postal products and services more accessible for customers with a disability and working to support efforts in the community to improve awareness and opportunity regarding disability.
Within the plan, Australia Post pledged to find ways to help more disabled people develop skills through expanded internship programmes, and partner with recruitment agencies to ensure candidates for available roles come from a “diverse talent pool”.
Various education and training initiatives are also to be undertaken.
From now until May, Australia Post will review its products and services regarding their accessibility, including an investigation through to March on how accessibility could be improved in parcel delivery services.
Australia Post said it will ensure all new buildings meet national accessibility standards for disability, while older buildings being refurbished will also be upgraded “where feasible”.
The Post said its customers will also have better accessibility through the new Digital MailBox electronic mail service, launched back in October before full roll-out in 2013.
Within the community at large, Australia Post’s new Accessibility Plan promises to broaden the diversity of the company’s supplier diversity to include disability enterprises or suppliers that sponsor or support disability causes.
Responsibility
“Our commitment to the community requires us to continually adapt and evolve”
Dorothy Hisgrove, the Australia Post general manager of culture and communications, said: “As one of Australia’s largest community-based organisations, we provide essential services for all Australians, every day, and we take this responsibility very seriously.
“Our Accessibility Action Plan is our commitment to stepping up our contribution to improving the overall quality of life for people with a disability.”
As of June 2012, Australia Post employed 2,398 people who have disclosed a disability – about 7.3% of the company’s total workforce, compared to an average of 3% for public sector agencies in Australia.
The company said that although its business is undergoing “tremendous” change”, its representation of disabled people had remained relatively stable over the last several years.
Under the new Accessibility Action Plan, Australia Post is forming an Accessibility Working Party, coordinated by executive general manager of retail services Christine Corbett, to drive forward the plan’s aims, meeting on a monthly basis to review progress.
An annual review of progress will be reported direct to Australia Post’s Executive Committee, through which various disability stakeholder groups will be able to provide feedback.
“Our commitment to the Australian community requires us to continually adapt and evolve to provide products and services that are relevant to how people live and work and importantly, are accessible,” said Hisgrove.
