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

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

Today, the disability employment gap stands at around 21%. This measure compares the employment of persons with disabilities versus those without, in all EU Member States and has remained between a range of 20-25% since the European Commission began monitoring the indicator in 2014. But why is this not improving? The report released on 10 July  titled “Digital Skills, Accommodation and Technological Assistance for Employment” produced by the European Disability Forum and funded by Google.org, explores precisely the causes behind this persistent gap. Some of their main findings reveal that:

• Only 1 in 4 employers have developed accessible recruitment processes, an essential step in hiring people with disabilities. 
• 81% of employers have no policy in place for the acquisition of assistive technology 
• Only 25% of employers are aware of and use public support to provide reasonable accommodation to workers with disabilities.

Low employment of persons with disabilities is a result of the lack of “awareness, provision of assistive technology, reasonable accommodation and development of digital skills”. The report at hand calls on EU public authorities, employers, and technology companies to step up their game. Consult the full report and its recommendations for the relevant stakeholders via the EDF website here.