Text and photo by Karin Bendixen

Happier employees and an increase in turnover in the last year are just two direct consequences of implementing the Design for All Commitment Label in Adir (Accessibilidad Directa), a special employment centre established in 1989 in Mungia, in north-western Spain’s Basque country, according to its manager Juan Ramón Merodio.

Can it really be so simple? Admittedly, Merodio has no direct statistics to prove any connection between the implementation of the Design for All Commitment Label and his Centre’s positive development; nevertheless, he ventures to assert that the Commitment Label has changed working habits and attitudes towards work, both in the enterprise itself and among its employees.

From Unconscious to Conscious

"When we discovered the Commitment Label and the method involved, I soon realised that the method was already familiar to us, only at an unconscious level and without any structure. "The Current Situation Diagnosis" gave us a tool to describe what we had already done and to make a plan for the next three years, complete with targets," comments Merodio.

Adir currently employs 55 persons, 45 of these are deaf. The Centre provides training designed to enable its employees to transfer to business. Its aim is to improve everybody’s standard of living by working towards an accessible environment and by developing projects to facilitate personal autonomy.

In addition to this, Adir also acts as a consultancy in its own right, so it has direct experience of the market and the competitive conditions that govern the private sector. Adir’s current business unit is involved in electronic card assembly, technical surveys, accessibility plans and providing deaf people with training, for example in communications. Since 1998, Adir has provided 17 towns and cities in Spain with accessibility plans.

Significant Changes

Since the Design for All Commitment Label was implemented in the Centre, Merodio has experienced significant changes in his own work and in relationships with his employees and between employees. He believes that Design for All is an approach to doing business:

"When you decide to implement Design for All at all levels in your organisation, you are making an investment in time and resources. It is not just an issue of management, but also of economics, teamwork, employees and, not least, external human resources."

A 20 percent Increase

"Since Adir introduced and implemented the Design for All concept, there has been a 20 percent increase in employee performance. Why? Because their physical conditions have improved, they have been trained to think in terms of Design for All and then involved in planning their own work, with every opportunity to express their wishes. The emphasis is now on better communications, both in the management team and among the employees. It is a question of changing habits."

Merodio also adds that he himself has found that he enjoys his work more: he now has more opportunities and no longer feels that work is just a question of "earning a living".

A New Concept

"Although accessibility is a familiar concept in the Basque country, Design for All is a new one that Adir has decided to introduce to its partners in town planning activities, through the accessibility plans it contributes to.

Nevertheless, most people tend to believe that Design for All is only concerned with products, comments Merodio.

The Basque regional government has recently shown considerable interest in the Design for All concept and is expected to take the initiative in promoting it in various fields, although which ones still remains to be decided.

Juan Ramón Merodio has no doubt that the Design for All Commitment Label is beneficial to a company’s corporate image – you show that you are not just concerned with your product, but also with the process and your employees.

Published in Crisp & Clear No. 4, December 2000