Special technical equipment supports Julien Brauers in his day-to-day work.

May 30, 2016: At Deutsche Telekom, we are committed to enabling people with and without disabilities to work together. With our action plan "Experience Diversity – Inclusion@DT", the company has created a further building block for inclusion.

Deutsche Telekom has a very heterogeneous workforce. The Group employs more than 200,000 people worldwide – young and old, women and men, people with different backgrounds, people with and without disabilities.

For us, inclusion is the natural, mutual respect among all employees. In particular, the word stands for the equal participation of people with disabilities in working life and in society.

Deutsche Telekom has exceeded Germany's statutory minimum quota of five percent for the employment of people with disabilities for many years. In fact, the employment rate of people with disabilities rose by another 0.2 percentage points in 2015, to 7.2 percent.

With nearly 9,000 employees with disabilities in Germany alone, Deutsche Telekom has a special commitment to inclusion, which we support with a wide range of supportive measures, integration agreements and special training courses.

Action plan for inclusion and equal opportunity

In addition, an action plan "Experience Diversity – Inclusion@DT" has been developed to maintain and promote inclusion at the company. The action plan is part of the company's efforts to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Targets have been defined for a number of action areas, with specific suggestions for ensuring successful inclusion. It defines, for example, that training measures must be designed barrier-free, to make them equally accessible to employees with and without disabilities. Deutsche Telekom also provides special services for people with disabilities, such as the deaf.

We do not see disabilities as negatives or a lesser version of "normality", they are part of the diversity of human life.