Changes to an ordinary working day
Lebenshilfe’s project profile describes adaptations that reach beyond entering a building. A height-adjustable desk concerns the workstation itself; an accessible clocking-in system concerns a routine employees must use. Flexible hours address how work is organised. The same profile lists workshops on inclusion and recurring meetings and conversations. These measures were presented as supporting colleagues with physical, intellectual or sensory disabilities. The account describes the measures recognised by the award, rather than publishing a technical audit of every workplace or task. [2]
Another award records employment
The province of Upper Austria also listed IKEA Linz Haid among its 2025 inclusion-prize recipients, with silver in the working-together category. Its description referred to flexible hours, accessible infrastructure, training and nine employment relationships for people with disabilities. That provides a specific reported employment figure alongside the national award’s account of workplace measures. The provincial page does not give a detailed breakdown of those contracts, their hours or their duration. It should therefore not be turned into a claim about every participant in every IKEA inclusion activity. [3]
Company views and the jury’s decision
In the project profile, IKEA Linz Haid representative Marlene Foller described working together on equal terms as a way to strengthen both social and professional skills. That is the company’s explanation of its approach. The national award was selected by a specialist jury, according to the organisers, and announced at a ceremony in Vienna’s Aula der Wissenschaften. IKEA won a category award; the separate €10,000 funding prize went to the association Right Now. The two recognitions should not be confused. [2][1]
Self-advocacy adds a wider demand
At the ceremony, Lebenshilfe vice-president and self-advocate Hanna Kamrat welcomed examples of inclusion while calling for political conditions that make participation ordinary. She also opposed cuts that exclude people with disabilities. Her intervention places the company example within a wider employment debate: a successful local adjustment can be documented, while access to support still depends on wider structures. The Linz Haid case offers concrete measures for employers to examine, without establishing that the same employment opportunities already exist across all stores or for all applicants. [1]