Lourdes Arreola

Updated March 2013

Figures from INEGI , Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography, show that 5.1% of the population, or approximately 5.6 million people, have disabilities. Lourdes Arreola, a former electronics engineer and telecommunications manager, has created a platform to help businesses include disabled people in the workplace: Linkenium. ‘I call it a platform because it’s not just a matter of job inclusion, it’s a change of mind-set.’

It was on Mexico’s initiative that the first UN Resolution on Disabilities was adopted in 2001 and Mexico, says Lourdes, ‘was among the first to sign the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.’ A convention which garnered the highest number of signatories in UN history on its opening day in 2007. While Lourdes finds that the legal process to implement it has taken some time, there is progress. ‘Today companies who hire disabled people receive tax breaks on employer’s contributions. Expenditure to equip or adapt a workspace is tax deductible as well.‘ In Lourdes’ opinion, the incentives are big enough to break down the financial barrier. The real barrier is educational.

Ability first

For Linkenium, it all comes down to capabilities. ‘Any employer is simply looking for the right person for the right job and every person has their own capabilities or lack of them. Some people don’t speak a foreign language,’ says Lourdes. Others don’t know how to use software but can manage complex mathematics. ‘The idea is to open your doors to everyone.’

Linkenium consults on processes to welcome disabled workers of all kinds – from physical to visual or intellectual. It also opens networks to the appropriate associations for further guidance if required. It markets itself as a professional platform, the sole interface a business seeking to adapt to disabilities needs. ‘Becoming a disability-friendly organisation gives stronger leadership, greater teamwork. People with disabilities are not just potential employees. They are customers and providers too,’ she remarks. ‘Working with them gives a business better understanding of their needs and can lead to product innovation.’

Role-playing

Linkenium’s first contract was with a major technology group. It started by organising an education workshop with the human resources department ‘to sensitise them to accommodating disabilities, both during interviews and in the workplace.’ Other workshops may put employees into role-playing situations. Since awareness of including disabilities – or not excluding them, as Lourdes likes to say – is relatively new in Mexican law, the market is ready for growth.

Before setting up Linkenium, Lourdes managed a large team in a telecommunications firm and volunteered with disabled people in her free time. ‘I gave swimming lessons to people with Down’s Syndrome and more recently I joined a group taking blind people on tandem bicycle rides. It taught me just how much we can learn from them.’ Here she met Gloria Rodriguez, who gradually lost her sight as an adult. Before long, Lourdes offered her a job as Linkenium’s chief consultant. ‘People with disabilities need employment, just like everyone else. They are real social and economic actors’ Clearly, Lourdes means business.