Pandemic raises awareness that everyone is affected and thus has special needs

UNAIDS and the United Nations established Zero Discrimination Day in 2014 to raise awareness for discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS. The #zerodiscrimination campaign associated with this day aims at raising awareness for and ending all forms of discrimination. The importance of a comprehensive approach to the principle of non-discrimination became clear once again in the last two years marked by the COVID-19 pandemic.

For a study commissioned by the Austrian Ombud for Equal Treatment in cooperation with the Disability Ombudsman, Barbara Liegl and Katrin Wladasch looked at the relationship between lived diversity and non-discrimination policies in companies and their resilience. Perceiving and responding to the specific needs of all employees, as well as an addressing the different needs of employees according to their respective areas of work, have emerged as key success factors. Companies that already had well-established structures in place for the inclusion of employees with disabilities and the integration of the needs of employees with childcare and caregiving responsibilities were better prepared for the sudden need to enable and facilitate collaboration by accommodating for a broad range of special needs.

Non-discrimination goes way beyond gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, age or disability, the pandemic has not only raised our awareness but has  also helped us recognize that all of us need to join the effort to fight discrimination.

The presentation of the research results took place on Wed, 19 January 2022 (available in German only), within the series of events promoting the exhibition ‘JETZT IM RECHT! Wege zur Gleichbehandlung’ at the Volkskundemuseum Wien. The publication of the study is planned for mid-March. The study will then also be available on our website.