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Placement of Job-Seekers with Disabilities
1. Placement services for people with disabilities - international trends

Employment opportunities for people with disabilities have changed dramatically over the past twenty years. In the past, many disabled jobseekers could only hope to find work alongside other disabled people in special centres, variously known as:

• sheltered workshops
• welfare enterprises
• production workshops.

In recent years, there has been a significant shift to promoting job opportunities for disabled persons in the open labour market, with supports where necessary. There are several reasons for this, but two stand out:

• changed understanding of 'disability'
• the growing cost of excluding disabled people.

Changed understanding of disability

Underlying the trend to open employment is the realization that many of the obstacles which disabled people face arise not from their disability itself, but rather from the way society is organized. Barriers which often prevent disabled people from getting jobs include:

• restrictive rules and regulations relating to training or employment
• work practices which are impossible for people with certain disabilities to observe
• inaccessible workplaces
• the assumptions, often negative, which employers and others make about the abilities and working capacity of disabled people.

These barriers can be overcome, and the employment placement service has an important role to play in this.

Costs of exclusion

Over the past two decades, a clearer understanding has also developed of the economic implications of excluding disabled people from the labour market. The loss of productive capacity by excluding disabled people from the workforce is enormous. In addition, the cost of providing benefits and welfare services for this large and growing group is very high and has become unaffordable in many countries. These countries now recognize that, by opening opportunities for disabled people in the labour force, this cost burden can be significantly reduced, while at the same time disabled workers can live independently and contribute to the national economy.

Measures to promote employment opportunities have taken a variety of forms.

• Some countries rely on persuasive support measures in convincing employers to give people with disabilities an opportunity to prove their work capacity.
• Other countries have introduced legislation or regulations to require employers to reserve a certain proportion of jobs for disabled people - generally referred to as quota legislation.

As a result of these efforts, it is increasingly recognized that people with disabilities have a valuable contribution to make to company performance, and more broadly to the national economy, if:

• they have the right skills,
• are placed in the right jobs, and
• are given appropriate supports, if required.

Alongside these developments, employment placement services catering to disabled job-seekers have been established and have expanded. Frequently, these services were started as specialist services catering only to job-seekers with disabilities. This is still considered the most appropriate format in many countries. Examples of specialist employment services in the Asian and Pacific region are:

• China Disabled Persons' Federation Employment Services Centres
• BIZLINK Ltd, Singapore
• the Selective Placement Division of the Hong Kong, China, Labour Department.

Over time, however, given the large number of disabled people seeking jobs and the fact that many of them do not require special service supports, the general employment placement services in many countries have started to cater to disabled people alongside other job-seekers. Some developing countries - such as Viet Nam - have opted for this approach from the start. Some countries - like Thailand and Malaysia - combine an integrated service for all job-seekers with a special placement service for disabled people. In Sweden, the general service for all jobseekers is combined with a special service for those with additional requirements, including job-seekers with disabilities and certain other groups of job-seekers - older workers, immigrant workers, young workers, and other target groups requiring special services. The decision on whether the placement service should be a specialist or a general service rests with the national authorities.

The question of whether jobs can be found for all disabled job-seekers through a specialist service, or whether the general employment service should have a role to play has been debated in many countries, not simply because of the large number of job-seekers with disabilities involved, but also because of the trend towards mainstreaming and inclusion. As a result, it is increasingly accepted that a strategy which combines access to a general service with access to a specialist service, where necessary, is needed if the problem of unemployment among people with disabilities is to be effectively tackled within a reasonable time frame.

Traditionally, responsibility for disability-related policy and programmes has been the responsibility of the ministry of social welfare or the ministry of health, and this is still the case in many countries. With the recent shift in policy along with the changed understanding of disability, responsibility for employment-related policy and services has gradually shifted from these ministries to the ministry of labour. In line with this trend, countries which have just recently established employment services for disabled people have allocated responsibility for these services to the ministry of labour or manpower from the start.

Non-governmental organizations in many countries have traditionally played an important role in supporting disabled job-seekers in their search for work, often filling a vacuum in the public services in innovative ways. These NGOs continue to provide placement services and should be seen as a valuable resource, supplementing the work of the public placement services.

Foreword and Table of Contents
Placement of Job-Seekers with Disabilities

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