People with disabilities face severe unemployment in the Asia and Pacific region and throughout the world and they make up a significant proportion of the world’s poor, as much as 20 per cent by UN estimates. Yet, they are often excluded from the very opportunities − social, educational and vocational − that could lead them out of poverty. More than half of the world’s disabled people − a total of 370 million − live in the Asia and the Pacific region and of those, 238 million are of working age. No country can successfully develop when such a large segment − between 5 to 20 per cent of the population by various estimates − are excluded from the social and economic mainstream.

In today’s global economy, managing diversity is a major factor in a company’s efficiency, productivity and overall business success. Many multinational companies, small and medium sized enterprises, and human resource professionals have discovered that people with disabilities can make significant contributions to a diverse and productive workforce and are currently reaping those benefits. For other companies, however, the recruitment, hiring, and retention of disabled workers are components of their diversity strategies.

Clearly, the full participation of people with disabilities in the workplace is a complex issue that requires intervention on many levels. In order to showcase what Sri Lanka Disability network has achieved a study tour for the employers of the Asia pacific Region was organized by the ILO Global Business and Disability Network and ILO/ACTEMP in collaboration with the Employers” Federation of Ceylon (EFC).

The Sri Lanka Study tour for Employer Organizations was a great capacity building opportunity for those employer organizations to address this issue. The study tour also provided them an opportunity to better understand the role employers’ organizations can play by supporting businesses and employers in general in learning more about the legal aspects of labour law as it applies to people with disabilities in their respective countries. The experience also contributed towards Increasing participant’s knowledge about disability issues and the human rights and business cases for hiring disabled persons in the workplace specifically through equal opportunity and equal treatment.

The study tour also afforded them the opportunity to visit workplaces that have hired people with disabilities to learn from their experiences and to identify methods of promoting the inclusion of disabled person in the workplace by learning from the examples of the Employers Federation of Ceylon and the Australian Network on Disability, Explore how Employer Organizations can benefit from the ILO Global Business and Disability Network and methods of providing awareness and technical advisory services on disability inclusion in the workplace to their members or prospective members, to initiate a dialogue among some Employer Organizations and multinational companies in the region to follow up on the plans identified. The study tour concluded with a one day workshop on “ Decent Work and People with Disabilities, the Case for Hiring People with Disabilities and the Role of Employers’ Organizations” facilitated by Employers’ Federation of Ceylon Disability Network and ACTEMP.