Company creates darkroom so that employee with rare vision can work without barriers

The first action to try to give comfort and tranquility to the work of João Vitor Granzotti Machado, 25, was unusual: the department would have all the lights off and the ten employees who worked there would have to try to get used to dealing with their demands in the dark. .

The inclusive measure lasted a week. It didn’t work to leave everyone in almost pitch black with only the computer monitors emanating light. The technology company where the young man works – Tractian, then, improvised a screen, with black curtains, to meet the boy’s visual need.

A little over a month ago, the definitive solution to give equal opportunities to the data science leader to perform his work was inaugurated, a “dark mode”, or dark room, which meets João’s need for an environment with restricted lighting.

As a child, João had an atrophy of the optic nerve, which ended up generating a rare combination of syndromes: achromatopsia, photophobia, hyperopia and astigmatism. He currently sees in black and white and has between 15% and 30% vision, depending on the environment.

The room —which is integrated with other areas of the company, as a module— has dimensions of a large box, two meters high and eighty centimeters deep, and provides the darkness that João needs. It also has accessible digital instruments and a 32-inch monitor, with high definition of contrast and brightness and with a special color palette.

“When you have a disability, generally, you will not be denied help, but it will also be rare that you are offered what you really need to have equality”, says the engineer.

“At school, for example, I could use my magnifying glass, which looks like a sniper scope, a pirate’s scope, to see what was on the blackboard, but turning off the light in the room would be much more complicated, it would mess with the rest of the students. The teachers even agreed to prepare tests in larger letters for me, but when the exam day came, they always forgot.”

The young man studied his whole life at a public school in Pirassununga (SP), gained life skills with low vision at Instituto Laramara, in São Paulo, and studied computer engineering at one of the best universities in the area in the country, USP. of San Carlos.

Son of a retired Air Force sergeant and a housewife, the first training in the technology area, in which he became a specialist, was a computer technician course. “My father used to go along with me to help me. It was funny because he was always very strict and he would scold me in the middle of classes too and the colleagues would laugh a lot.”

In order to get in touch with knowledge and autonomy, in addition to needing different lighting, João makes use of accessibility instruments such as magnifying glasses, telescopic sights and a green cane, which indicates low vision.

“I had a lot to do with my life until I got where I am. I cried a lot with my mother, I fought to be respected and included, I suffered. I had to learn to deal with my condition and learn to live with it. We all have challenges in life. Being happy It depends on how you deal with your suffering.”

Having a part of the work environment modified, even to improve the working conditions of an employee, needs to be a harmonic measure and with general understanding in the company.

According to Tabata Contri, inclusion consultant at Talento Includer, “the job market increasingly talks about equity, which is different from equality, which means treating everyone the same, without considering the uniqueness of people. different when this is necessary for the person to be productive. It can be through a specific tool, flexibilizing a technical or behavioral skill, making a different environment because the person is different”.

According to Tractian CEO Igor Marinelli, the company wants to be a “model of diversity”. “We offer vacancies focused on diversity both [no trabalho] remote and face-to-face. Here, the company is concerned with the environment and the person. A very clear example of this is the construction of ‘dark mode’, he declares.

João has been with the company for almost two years, where he started as an intern. “In my job interview, I wasn’t even asked about possible demands of my disability, that wasn’t an issue. What mattered was my ability to perform the role, which changes everything in motivation.”