European Disability Forum

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Digital Skills, Accommodation and Technological Assistance for Employment: Supporting the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the open labour market

Digital Skills, Accommodation and Technological Assistance for Employment: Supporting the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the open labour market

Executive Summary

EU-level data consistently shows just how much less likely persons with disabilities are to be employed than their non-disabled peers. The latest figures show that the employment gap, the difference in employment rates between persons with and without disabilities, remains stable at around 24 percentage points, with even higher gaps for women and young persons with disabilities.

This report explores how the lack of awareness, provision of assistive technology, reasonable accommodation and development of digital skills contribute to this stark gap.

It shows that, despite the established legal frameworks on reasonable accommodation, in reality they are poorly put into practice. Among the key barriers persons with disabilities face are the lack of awareness by employers about how to offer reasonable accommodation, financial constraints, insufficient support by public authorities and societal attitudes.

Results highlight that persons with disabilities face severe challenges as early as the recruitment stage. In fact, employers state that, if they have them, internal HR guidelines on hiring persons with disabilities tend to be tacit rather than based on written and codified internal protocols. Only a quarter of employers that answered the survey have an internal HR policy on hiring persons with disabilities. This hampers their ability to offer accessible hiring procedures and undermines the effectiveness of the recruitment process.

In addition, results from our study indicate that only 1 in 4 employers participate in programmes, either public or private, aimed at improving employment inclusion for persons with disabilities. In this context, Spain and the UK stand out as the only countries where most interviewed employers – 82% and 59%, respectively – take part in such programmes. Considering the sample average, these last figures show how poorly other countries’ supportive frameworks are currently performing.

Acquiring assistive technologies is another key challenge. 81% of the employers surveyed do not have policies in place to provide them, and, on top of this, 75% do not even know if their employees are using assistive technology.

The Recommendations section of this report provides a clear path ahead to policy makers, employers and technological companies.

The report recommends, among other things, that:

  • Policymakers should increase focus on digital skills taught during formal and informal education to ensure persons with disabilities are not left behind. This training must be continued by employers during apprenticeships and internship programmes.
  • Employers must invest in accessible technology for all employees, regardless of disability. These investments must be supported by public funds that have to be easy to access.
  • Governments must increase the amount of state aid available and – equally importantly – widely publicise how to access it. Persons with disabilities deserve equal access to the labour market, but, as this report shows, significant improvements are necessary to achieve this. These improvements must be done with the close involvement of persons with disabilities and their representative organisations.

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