Kaufland Romania partners with .lumen to empower the blind (press release)

Kaufland Romania continues its actions for the professional and social integration of people with disabilities through a partnership with .lumen, a Romanian start-up that proposes state-of-the-art solutions to improve the lives of people with visual impairments. The company joins, for the second year in a row, the initiative launched by the Romanian Diversity Chamber of Commerce.

Kaufland is an employer that supports diversity and equal opportunities, and the partnership with .lumen is part of the A.C.C.E.S. Program - Hiring Candidates with Special Requirements and Developments - started in 2019, through which the company aims to make Kaufland locations accessible to both its employees and its customers. The .lumen glasses are an assistive technology for people with visual disabilities, giving them greater mobility in everyday life and thus, more independence. The glasses integrate the most advanced technologies that allow the reproduction of the main characteristics of a guide dog, using elements such as artificial intelligence and robotics.

“The partnership with .lumen came from the desire to help Delia, our colleague in the Recruitment department and blind person, to have an independent life. At the same time, we want Kaufland stores to be accessible to the visually impaired as well. That’s why we were thrilled to find out that a team of Romanians is working on the development of this innovative product. We realized from the first discussion that we have a lot in common with the .lumen team - especially the desire to facilitate access for people with disabilities to a better social life.”, said Estera Anghelescu Recruiting & Employer Branding Director, Kaufland Romania.

“Globally, there are 40 million blind people, and their number is constantly growing. Despite technological advances, there is still no scalable solution for their mobility. .lumen creates assistive systems for the visually impaired, using the latest technologies in artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, and robotics. But before launching such a product publicly, we have to go through a very extensive testing stage under very complex environments, which we want to turn into accessible ones. That’s why we started working together with Kaufland Romania to build something unthinkable until now: offering blind people the opportunity to enjoy the experience of a large store independently. This road we started is an incredible and challenging one. In order to succeed, we are happy to have partners with us - people and organizations, to join forces with them so that we can achieve our common goals.”, says Cornel Amariei, CEO & Founder .lumen.

Supporting the community has always been an essential component for Kaufland. Working with .lumen is an important step in further developing and refining this assistive solution so that blind people can have access to independence and better integration into the labor market.