Disability: a year of many commitments


DuoDay participants with Arnaud Nourry, Chairman and Chief executive officer of Hachette Livre (4th from left), and Sophie Cluzel, Secretary of State in charge of people with disabilities (3rd from left), May 2019 (Vanves, France).

As content accessibility is central to the Lagardère group’s commitments, 2019 saw a number of initiatives within the Group’s various entities to improve accessibility for disabled people as well as their integration into the world of work.
Around 180 Group employees put themselves forward to receive a disabled person and teach them about their job during the DuoDay organised in May 2019. This provided the opportunity to bring to life vocations or future collaboration opportunities while also breaking down prejudices.
In addition, in November 2019, Hachette Livre signed the Manifesto for the inclusion of disabled people in economic life alongside 100 or so other companies. This charter covers 10 operating commitments to encourage companies to contribute to getting disabled people into work and keeping them in work. Furthermore, Lagardère News, alongside a number of other French media, signed the Charter relating to the representation of disabled people and disability in broadcast media in December 2019. This charter aims in particular to allow for better exposure of disabled people in broadcasting.
Lastly, Hachette Livre also made a commitment to make its e-books accessible to as many people as possible, including blind and poorly sighted readers. It signed the ABC Charter in September 2019 after winning the Accessible Books Consortium International Excellence Award in 2018. In addition, a conference entitled “How do you read when you’re visually impaired?” was organised in partnership with the French Federation for the Blind and Hachette Livre’s Mission Handicap project at the premises of the Vanves division head office in France in February 2020. This event provided the opportunity to raise employee awareness about inclusive reading. A second stage should help to continue to raise awareness by means of practical workshops.

Key figure

180 Lagardère group employees volunteered for the DuoDay in 2019.