Wage employment

This education and training guide has been designed to support improved capacity of governments in collaboration with social partners and civil society agencies to design, implement and evaluate legislation that effectively supports equal employment opportunities for people with disabilities. It presents seven modules outlining different methods and strategies in for practitioners and advocates individuals to achieve a positive legislative impact

This report, the fifth edition in the Disability at a Glance series, focuses on barriers to the employment of persons with disabilities in the Asia-Pacific region, and offers solutions to strengthen their employment prospects. It offers a regional overview of disability legislation, policies and practices, as well as relevant country-specific information with a particular emphasis on the employment of persons with disabilities. The information is drawn from a targeted disability survey carried out in 2015 by the ESCAP secretariat, and research undertaken by other organizations and scholars.

The publication consists mainly of two parts. In Part 1, Chapter 1 discusses key employment trends shaping the experiences of persons with disabilities in Asia and the Pacific. Chapter 2 considers the major barriers that persons with disabilities face as they seek to find decent work in the open labour market. Chapter 3 explores a number of strategies used by governments and in the private sector to promote greater access to employment for persons with disabilities. Finally, Chapter 4 lays out a series of action points governments should consider in their efforts to remove the numerous employment barriers faced by many millions of disabled people. In Part 2, country snapshots provide the latest demographic, socioeconomic and employment-specific data from 58 countries in 5 ESCAP subregions .

This paper is "a compilation of 12 case studies of employers’ organizations and business networks, describing their activities related to disability and employment. The publication is intended for employers’ organizations and other representative business organizations, companies, workers’ organizations, ILO staff, people with disabilities, and others interested in learning about the inclusion of disabled people in the workplace. It contributes to the knowledge sharing activities of the ILO Global Business and Disability Network"
Working Paper No 6

This report compares employment outcomes in countries that vary in their policies for people with chronic illnesses and disabilities. The report includes a policy review and analysis, observational studies and a synthesis of evidence from the selected countries on evaluation studies of the impact of the identified policies and interventions. This report is useful people interested in employment outcomes for people with disabilities relating to national policies

The inclusion of people with a disability in all livelihood approaches, including formal employment, income generation projects, skills development and access to loans and financial services is important and practical support proposals are provided based on rights based principles including:

• Awareness of disability and its implications
• Participation and active involvement of people with a disability
• Comprehensive accessibility through addressing physical, communication, policy and attitudinal barriers
• Twin track enabling full inclusion through mainstream access working alongside disability specific supports

A case study Improving socio-economic support for people with a disability, based in Laos, is provided. 

There is a checklist for disability inclusion in livelihood programs.

This is a how-to guide for companies interested in integrating youth with disabilities into their workforce. "This guide is based on initiatives that are currently tried out by ten companies to employ youth with disabilities in eight countries (Brazil, Chile, China, India, Norway, Republic of Serbia, Singapore and the United States). Good practices and useful insights are identified and explained through first-hand accounts. First, the business case for employing youth with disabilities is made. This section will highlight how two companies benefited from initiatives to employ youth with disabilities. Next, four reoccurring good practices that were cited in the featured cases are given particular consideration:

• partner with an organization that specializes in disability services;
• provide (when necessary) disability-accessible skills training;
• offer recruitment and job placement services;
• embrace a policy of inclusion and non-discrimination"

This research focuses on three stakeholders: Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), Persons with Disabilities (PWD), and non-disabled clients. It attempts to highlight the following:

• Understanding of MFIs about disability, their perceptions of persons with disabilities, and their preparedness to include them as potential clients
• Concerns and apprehensions of PWD to becoming potential MFI clients
• Views of non-disabled clients on including PWD in their groups

The study investigates the knowledge and the perceptions about disability among each stakeholder group and attempts to elucidate how that impacts the ability of PWD to access microfinance services. Four microfinance institutions of different geographic areas were studied. The survey inolved 1,000 people of whom 57 were disabled. 

Part 6.3 of the ILO's "The Informal Economy and Decent Work: A Policy Resource Guide supporting transitions to formality"

Key challenges are discussed:

• Marginalization from the mainstream economy
• Weak data to support policy development
• Attitudinal barriers and social exclusion
• Low educational levels
• Skills gaps
• Labour market discrimination
• Weak policy and legal environment

and emerging approaches and good practices are presented:

• A rights based approach
• Inclusive strategies
• Addressing data challenges
• Expanding labour market opportunities
• Education policies
• Overcoming skills gaps
• Making training accessible
• Community Based Rehabilitation 
• Changing policy and legal frameworks
• Awareness raising and knowledge sharing

This report estimates the increase in economic output that could be achieved by increasing employment outcomes for people with disabilities…The economic modelling presented in this report suggests that closing the gap between labour market participation rates and unemployment rates for people with and without disabilities by one-third would result in a cumulative $43 billion increase in Australia’s GDP over the next decade in real dollar terms. The modelling also suggests that GDP will be around 0.85% higher over the longer term, which is equivalent to an increase in GDP in 2011 of $12 billion.

The policy and program mechanisms for achieving these outcomes are not explicitly addressed in this report, nor does it address the costs associated with achieving an increase in employment participation. Rather, the aim of this report is to present the potential benefits associated with increasing employment participation for people with disabilities and provide a reference point for future policy discussion