Handilab

Clément Rouxel, Communications and Engagement Director at AXA France: "Supporting Handilab was quite obvious for us. That is why, as soon as we heard about it, we decided to support it through the AXA Mutuelles corporate foundation. Why? First, because AXA wants to act for human progress by being a truly inclusive company. Secondly, because we deeply believe in innovation—sustainable and committed innovation at the service of everyone. Ultimately, when we were faced with the Handilab project, all these values resonated, as did the project’s goal of moving people with disabilities, dependency, or loss of autonomy out of a purely medico-social field to truly bring them in as wealth creators and full economic actors in our society. Supporting a place where all these synergies and value creations were possible is the core idea of Handilab for the AXA Mutuelles foundation." Pierre Auberger, Central Communications Director of the Bouygues Group: "Well, we are delighted to be a partner of Handilab, which we have supported since its inception. This project dedicated to inclusion aligns perfectly with the corporate foundation pillars of the Bouygues Group. Thanks to Bouygues' support in 2024, startups will soon be able to settle within Handilab with the opening of 23 workstations. They will benefit from training and networking with ecosystem actors to innovate." Hélène Chinal, Transformation Director at Capgemini Southern Europe: "The Handilab project is an innovation and inclusion project that resonates completely with our values and challenges. We want to be a company that is both inclusive and innovative. What particularly interested us was the support provided to startups and the development of training programs." Sophie Pelé, Partner at Dechert LLP: "First of all, we are delighted to be part of this project, and I must say it became an obvious choice very quickly because we share many common values with Handilab. The first is that we do a vast amount of pro bono work serving the most vulnerable people. The second is that we work extensively for clients in innovation, whether in the life sciences or digital sectors. The third reason is that, specifically in these sectors, we also try to break down silos; for example, we try to involve our clients in our pro bono initiatives. We have partnerships with major financial and industrial groups, and these same people are also partners of Handilab." Jean-Claude Le Grand, Chief Human Relations Officer at L’Oréal: "We wanted to become a partner of Handilab because it was obvious to us. At ESSEC, where we have already been working for many years, particularly on everything related to diversity and inclusion, being part of this new adventure surrounding disability was an obvious step and a moral obligation. Above all, it was a huge ambition that we shared with the people at Handilab." Elizabeth Tchoungui, Executive Director of CSR at Orange: "Orange is delighted to join the Handilab project because we are absolutely convinced that innovation only makes sense if it benefits everyone. What we found wonderful about the Handilab project is the idea of being in an ecosystem that mixes researchers, companies, and people with disabilities to create services that benefit those with disabilities, but which can potentially benefit everyone. I am very struck by the fact that some of the world's greatest innovations were created by people with disabilities. I’m thinking, for example, of text messaging. The ancestor of the text message is the teleprinter, a process that allowed typed conversations to be transformed and made audible over the phone. This was the ancestor of the text message, invented over 50 years ago by an orthodontist who had a hearing impairment. Today, there are 1.3 billion people with disabilities in the world, so we must both serve them and benefit from innovation. The spirit of Handilab is also about bringing all talents to the service of innovation." Edouard Hénault, Managing Director of Transdev France: "Transdev is a mobility operator. As a mobility operator, accessibility to transport means and the solutions we implement across all territories—for everyone and everywhere in mainland France and overseas—is essential. Therefore, it was quite natural to connect with the leading innovation platform for disability and autonomy."

"Today, we are at Handilab for the Transdev 2025 Innovation Day. We are focused on two themes: accessibility for people with disabilities and also the HR function, specifically the impact of new technologies like AI and demographic transformation, which mean we must anticipate future needs. We can see that the world is evolving very, very quickly and we must know how to adapt. Public transport is truly something anchored in local territories, which is especially true for the TADAO system, working with a local authority for whom we are the providers and that aims to be very far ahead. Therefore, we have chosen to place innovation at the very core of our entire transformation system; it is very important. Artificial intelligence has sparked both high expectations and perhaps some fantasies, but it certainly offers real opportunities. Regarding artificial intelligence, what struck me the most were the two testimonials from Air France and APEC about the transformation of professions. From this analysis of work, they say: 'Yes, I can automate this; yes, that makes sense; however, I am keeping human control'. I will obviously support Anne's point regarding the integration of AI across all teams. What I’ve understood, in any case, is that we need to concern ourselves with it now; otherwise, it will be too late. A large part of the day was dedicated to a marketplace featuring about twenty startups already proven and tested by Transdev. Within the framework of startup solutions today, the real challenge is to understand and adapt them. There is nothing better than meeting and seeing each other in person. We have identified essentially three solutions that we will be able to implement, I think, quite rapidly in Le Havre. ACCEO or EZYMOB—whether for the visually impaired, the deaf, or the hard of hearing—to be able to identify passenger information, and a third called 'Mon Copilote' (My Co-pilot), in order to broaden the spectrum of people and their daily autonomy. And we are going to implement this solution starting tomorrow, meaning from January 2026 in Le Havre. Next, we offered several immersive workshops using technology and VR headsets. Immersive, including a play that engages participants in a reflection on disabilities, and notably invisible disabilities in the workplace. 'Is there something I should know, something you really want to tell me?' 'No'. We must be capable of opening ourselves up to the world around us; that is what we are trying to do today."