The Role of Disability and Accessibility in Corporate Sustainability Reporting

Although companies increasingly focus on the social dimension in corporate sustainability, there seems to be a lack of understanding how and to what extent disability and accessibility frameworks and activities are integrated in corporate sustainability reports. In this article, we aim to close this gap by (a) analysing the disability and accessibility (D&A) activities from the largest 50 companies in Europe based on their corporate sustainability reports, and (b) advancing a simplified conceptual framework for D&A that can be used in corporate reporting. In particular, we provide an overview about corporate D&A reporting and associated activities according to three identified areas: (a) workforce, (b) workplace, and (c) products and services. Our findings are twofold: First, the majority of the companies address D&A in their corporate sustainability reports mainly under the diversity umbrella, but lack a detailed debate about the three identified areas. Second, we found that existing frameworks for D&A are hardly used because either they are not focused on corporate reporting or seem too difficult or complicated to complete. Thus, our framework not only represents a first opportunity to foster the implementation of a D&A framework within the social dimension of corporate sustainability reports, but also presents a holistic yet flexible management tool that takes into account the most critical elements while shaping implementation, directing evaluation and encouraging future planning of D&A initiatives. As such, this study contributes to and extends the limited amount of research of D&A activities in the social dimension in corporate sustainability reporting

FES Training in Aging: interim results show statistically significant improvements in mobility and muscle fiber size

Aging is a multifactorial process that is characterized by decline in muscle mass and performance. Several factors, including reduced exercise, poor nutrition and modified hormonal metabolism, are responsible for changes in the rates of protein synthesis and degradation that drive skeletal muscle mass reduction with a consequent decline of force generation and mobility functional performances. Seniors with normal life style were enrolled: two groups in Vienna (n=32) and two groups in Bratislava: (n=19). All subjects were healthy and declared not to have any specific physical/disease problems. The two Vienna groups of seniors exercised for 10 weeks with two different types of training (leg press at the hospital or home-based functional electrical stimulation, h-b FES). Demografic data (age, height and weight) were recorded before and after the training period and before and after the training period the patients were submitted to mobility functional analyses and muscle biopsies. The mobility functional analyses were: 1. gait speed (10m test fastest speed, in m/s); 2. time which the subject needed to rise from a chair for five times (5x Chair-Rise, in s); 3. Timed –Up-Go- Test, in s; 4. Stair-Test, in s; 5. isometric measurement of quadriceps force (Torque/kg, in Nm/kg); and 6. Dynamic Balance in mm. Preliminary analyses of muscle biopsies from quadriceps in some of the Vienna and Bratislava patients present morphometric results consistent with their functional behaviors. The statistically significant improvements in functional testings here reported demonstrates the effectiveness of h-b FES, and strongly support h-b FES, as a safe home-based method to improve contractility and performances of ageing muscles

Mobility of the sight impaired in public transport: evidence from two consecutive research projects in Austria

Personal mobility is one of the dominant factors in everyday life both for work and leisure time. However, there are many groups with restricted or poor access to mobility services. The group this paper is focusing on are sight impaired people who are regularly mistaken to exhibit the same needs and requirements as blind people. As a consequence measures taken for the latter group do not help seeing impaired people as they still rely on their eyesight while using public transport services, whereas blind people have to replace this sense. Due to the fact that people with impaired sight have specific needs and requirements regarding their mobility, which are completely different from those of blind or unimpaired persons, it is highly indicated to put a particular focus on the research regarding the respective mobility barriers as well as supporting factors. From the transport companies\u27 point of view this could be of considerable interest as - according to conservative estimates - there are almost 40 times more sight impaired than blind people in Austria. Taking into consideration that the measures taken for sight impaired people usually can be realised with low or even non-relevant costs at all, a proper identification of the seeing impaired as a specific target group will certainly have a positive impact on a company\u27s revenue situation. Furthermore it has to be taken into account that not only sight impaired will experience the comfort gain caused by these measures but the entity of all passengers. These measures also support the objective commonly known as mobility4all. In order to reveal the most fostering and most hindering factors people with sight impairments are confronted with and to collect convenient solutions, the Institute for Transport and Logistics Management of WU Vienna conducted a qualitative short-study based on interviews with persons directly concerned, their representatives, authorities and transport companies as well as on discussions in topic-related internet-fora. Problems at stops and stations, in vehicles, general mobility problems and public perception were taken into account. As a first step the barriers detected and the related solutions proposed were rated according to their technical and financial feasibility as well as to the utility gain for the passengers concerned. It could be shown that many problems are merely resulting from a lack of awareness, empathy or insufficient staff training. On the basis of these findings the Institute initiated the - eventually very successful - application for a large scale project. In a consortium with several scientific and economic partners it is currently conducting the project MoViH - Mobility for the seeing and hearing impaired in public transport - which is funded by the ways2go programme of the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology. The main goals are the identification of hindering and supporting factors for sight and hearing impaired in their mobility, analysing the gap between the perception of the persons concerned and the view of the mobility providers, the development of convenient solutions to the identified problems as well as of an indicator for those solutions and, based on the latter, deriving recommendations for future guidelines and directives regarding the design of public transport services. To reach these targets the project was separated in several work packages. Having defined the state-of-the-art, a qualitative survey among the technology and transport service providers was conducted simultaneously with a quantitative survey targeting the sight and hearing impaired. The results will then be matched in a gap analysis and assessed with the indicator. Workshops will be held to further refine the proposed solutions between the viewpoints of the passengers and representatives of technology and mobility providers. The quantitative survey currently conducted is centred around a mobility questionnaire developed with experts in the field of seeing and hearing impairment as well as researchers. It was pretested with several sight and hearing impaired persons. The respondents were randomly sampled. The qualitative survey among the technology and transport service providers was based on a semi-structured interview guideline which was developed by transport experts in cooperation with experts from project partners. The results of these surveys will be the basis for the proposed article

Transport market study on European Rail Freight Corridor 5

The main objective of the Transport Market Study (TMS) for European Rail Freight Corridor 5 (between Gdynia in Poland and the Mediterranean harbours in Italy and Slovenia) is to provide a clear understanding of the current conditions of the multimodal freight market along the Corridor together with short- and long-term freight traffic forecasts consequent to the implementation of the Corridor at the end of year 2015, and also to propose a measurement of the expected modal shift from road to rail. The TMS serves as the basis for the assessment of customer needs, through a “corridor perspective”. The TMS will analyse and present the main market elements of the corridor and contribute to the preparation of the Implementation Plan of the Corridor, pursuant to Art. 9 of the Regulation (EU) 913/2010

In complete SCI patients, long-term functional electrical stimulation of permanent denervated muscles increases epidermis thickness

To access publisher's full text version of this article click on the hyperlink belowOur studies have shown that atrophic Quadriceps muscles from spinal cord injury patients suffering with permanent denervation-induced atrophy and degeneration of muscle fibers, were almost completely rescued to normal size after two years of home-based functional electrical stimulation (h-bFES). Because we used surface electrodes to stimulate the muscle, we wanted to know how the skin was affected by the treatments. Here, we report preliminary data from histological morphometry of Hematoxylin-Eosin-stained paraffin-embedded skin sections harvested from the legs of three SCI patients before and after two years of h-bFES. Despite the heterogeneity of gender and time from SCI, comparing pre vs post h-bFES in these three SCI patients, the data show that: (1) In one subject skin biopsies from both the right and left leg experienced a statistically significant increase in thickness of the epidermis after two years of H-bFES; (2) In the other two subjects, one leg showed a significant increase in epidermis thickness, while in the other leg there was either small positive or negative non-significant changes in epidermis thickness; and (3) more importantly, comparison of grouped data from the three subjects shows that there was a significant 28% increase in the thickness of the epidermis in response to two years of h-bFES rehabilitation. In conclusion, the three educational cases show a long-term positive modulation of epidermis thickness after two years of h-bFES, thus extending to skin the positive results previously demonstrated in skeletal muscle, specifically, a substantial recovery of muscle mass and contractile function after long-term h-bFES