Disability and employment: the challenge of inclusion – LaRepública.pe

César Torres Acuña*

This week I had the opportunity to participate in a series of workshops for the elaboration of the National Policy on Employment Opportunities for People with Disabilities, organized by the Ministry of Labour and Employment Promotion (MTPE). In these spaces, people who are blind, deaf, and those with other mental impairments and intellectual impairments, had the opportunity to express the problems they face day-to-day to access and stay in the labour market; at the same time, they were able to propose alternatives to eliminate the barriers that prevent them from realizing their fundamental right to work.

it Is difficult not to feel the impact of exclusion, of prejudice and of the slackness that suffer from these individuals; however, these consultation processes open up small windows of hope.

it Is a process that is unfolding as much in Lima as in the provinces, involving various organizations of persons with disabilities, as well as to public entities and the business sector. We hope that this experience will serve to strengthen the process of inclusion of persons with disabilities and would set an important precedent, which will be replicated by other public entities at the national, regional or local.

The generation of spaces of participation for people with disabilities is good 'per se'. It is necessary, therefore, to recognize the efforts of the MTPE in implementing the consultation process respecting the diversity and heterogeneity of the disability -physical, sensory, mental and intellectual; even more if we take into account the great challenges that this implies, since the implementation of the necessary adaptations to ensure an effective participation of these people –as interpreters in sign language, documents in accessible formats, using simple language, etc-, until the real willingness to listen to the stories about the daily hardships they suffer to be inserted in the labour market and the incorporation of the recommendations that these people pose to remove the barriers that prevents them from working in conditions of equality.

let us Recall that, in Peru, according to the First dedicated Survey on Disability, conducted by the INEI-ENEDIS 2012, more than a million and a half people have a disability and, of those, nearly 77% are outside the labour market. Likewise, among persons with disabilities seeking employment, over 12% is not obtained, which represents triple the rate of national unemployment. On the other hand, the 278-thousand people with disabilities who are in the labour market, approximately 162 thousand work as self-employed, and only an approximate amount of 79 thousand people have the status of employee or worker. In summary, the unemployment rate of this population is high.

according to the persons with disabilities, low education and training that have it is one of the main factors that hinder the access to decent employment. According to figures from the INEI, two out of every three people with disabilities in the country have a significant educational gap that hinders their insertion in the labour market.

therefore, any policy aimed at promoting employment opportunities to this population must be in close relation with the closure of the educational gap that currently exists. Remember that, according to the INEI, the 24% have no level of education, 41% have only primary, 23% secondary education and only 12% with higher education. These figures do not do, but rather to highlight the urgency of improving the qualification of labour of these people, in order to promote their inclusion in the labour market.

Let’s be honest, if it is not working on narrowing the gap of education, is unlikely to be a successful policy of employment opportunities for people with disabilities. This is not to promote the charity to the employment contract, but to develop capabilities that generate real opportunities of access and permanence in employment.

The generation of employment opportunities, demand formation and training, as well as programs of financial support for entrepreneurship, campaigns aimed at eliminating prejudices, negative existing against these people, and the establishment of services and programs that provide advice to both employers and people with disabilities who seek employment.

let’s Hope that the commitment made by States, within the framework of APEC, to implement an educational strategy that allows to improve the competences and employability, to take this reality into consideration and generate a context in which it is really include this population for the good of society as a whole.

* Program for the Defense and Promotion of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – office of the Ombudsman.