Iscte creates observatory to promote hiring of people with disabilities

Iscte – Lisbon University Institute – is creating the new Disability Observatory to encourage the hiring of people with disabilities and, with this, “promote more inclusive employment in Portugal”.

According to a statement sent to newsrooms, the observatory is being set up in conjunction with the Disability Studies Center, launched in May by the same university, and will produce “knowledge” for companies and institutions that partner with Iscte in this project to expand opportunities of job.

“Improving the conditions for people with disabilities to access recruitment for the job market is fundamental for their full integration into our society”, says Luís Capucha, professor at Iscte and coordinator of the Disability Studies Center. According to him, in Portugal, data on professional careers for people with disabilities are “very modest”, which is why “it is necessary to collect a set of solid indicators such as employment and unemployment rates, national salary levels and other types more specific data that only employers and partners can provide”.

After collecting, processing and analyzing the data, the observatory’s researchers produce recommendations for public policies and procedures in companies that promote the active life of the population with disabilities. “Today, Portugal lacks a comprehensive program of the benefits of investing in inclusive employability among people, companies and training entities”, adds Luís Capucha in the statement. “That’s why we’re creating this observatory, because at Iscte we want to help reduce as much as possible the barriers that still exist to the employability of people with disabilities”, he points out.

It is worth remembering that, with the aim of encouraging equal employment opportunities and professional insertion, as well as sharing good practices and success stories, Iscte has been promoting the “Inclusive Recruitment Forum (in)Visible Capabilities since 2019”. . This is organized by the Social Action Service and the five Iscte Schools.

This year the initiative took place on November 15th and included the participation of different agents working in this area. “If the policies of the support model for independent living begin to develop, companies will realize that they have advantages in inclusive hiring”, reiterates the coordinator of the Disability Studies Center who considers that the main barrier to inclusive recruitment is “ prejudice of employers”, which originates from “lack of knowledge of the capabilities of people with disabilities”. “There are people who, because of their disability, have abilities that are especially suited to certain roles”, guarantees the Iscte professor. “For example, deaf people are better able to work in noisy environments”, he explains.

On the other hand, the coordinator states that there is also a gap in Portugal in the “training of people with disabilities”, who require “special education strategies to which access is reduced”. “These people have a huge desire to demonstrate that, like others, they have the capabilities to enter the job market and therefore tend to have a high level of commitment”, he highlights.

Furthermore, the activity of the Disability Studies Center resulted in the creation of a postgraduate course in Disability Studies and Human Rights, which began operating at Iscte this academic year. Next year the institution will also open a master’s degree with the same name.