Digital skills for inclusive employment – report published
The European Disability Forum has published a series of reports on Digital Skills, Accommodation and Technological Assistance for Employment (DATA), with funding from Google.org. The Funka Foundation has been providing national expertise in Belgium, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden.
The aim of the research was to investigate how skills and training, provision of assistive technology and reasonable accommodation influence the employment rate of people with disabilities. Via surveys and interviews with various stakeholders across the EU, a collection of knowledge, data and experiences has provided a basis for understanding how these policy areas interact and can be improved.
This research shows how much less likely persons with disabilities are to be employed than their non-disabled peers. Results highlight that persons with disabilities face severe challenges as early as the recruitment stage. 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.
“Acquiring assistive technology 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” says Roberta Lulli, Project Officer at EDF social policy team.
Based on the activities, EDF has developed recommendations for policy makers, employers and the disability community, which is currently being disseminated through an awareness raising campaign on inclusive employment called “Ask, Listen, Implement”. The campaign includes, among other things, a video with sign language interpretation and live captions:
Information about the study and links to reports, opens in a new window
Project on Digital Skills, Accommodation and Technological Assistance for Employment (DATA)