ONCE & Microsoft report on new skills for new jobs

ONCE AND MICROSOFT REPORT ON

NEW SKILLS FOR NEW JOBS:
CHALLENGES FOR THE INCLUSION OF PEOPLE
WITH DISABILITIES IN THE JOB MARKET

This report is the result of an Expert Workshop
and Brainstorming session organised by ONCE
and Microsoft on the 14th of June of 2010

Sponsored by:

Workshop Report New Skills for New Jobs
Challenges for the Inclusion of People with Disabilities in the Job Market

The content of this report was prepared by a group of independent experts and only reflects the point
of view of its authors. Neither ONCE nor Microsoft may be held responsible for the use that may be
made of the information contained in this publication.

This document is available at: www.epractice.eu/community/eaccessibility

Cover: © Technosite, 2010

© ONCE and Microsoft, 2010. Reproduction is authorised provided that the source is acknowledged.

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New Skills for New Jobs: Challenges for the inclusion of
people with disabilities in the job market

A report sponsored by ONCE and Microsoft

Chairs:
Elena Bonfiglioli, Director of Citizenship, Microsoft

Jose Angel Martinez Usero, Director of International Projects and Relations, Technosite, ONCE
Foundation

Rapporteur:
Laia Pujol Priego, Head of International Strategic Initiatives at I2BC. Spain

Workshop Experts:
Ask Andersen, Policy Officer, European Disability Forum (EDF)
Miguel González-Sancho Bodero, Deputy Head, e-Inclusion Unit, DGINFSO
Catherine Grinyer, Director of Communications, Employers’ Forum on Disability
Benedicto Gutierrez, Director of Strategy and Planning, Repsol, Spain
Mihaela Ionasc, Head of Resourcing EMEA, British Telecom, United Kingdom
Nigel Lewis, CEO, AbilityNet, United Kingdom
Barbara Martin, Head of Technical Office for European Affairs, ONCE, Spain
Inmaculada Placencia, Deputy Head, Integration Unit, DGEMPLOYMENT
James Thurston, Senior Strategist for Global Policy & Standards, Microsoft, United States
Julia Wadoux, Policy Officer for Health, ICT and Accessibility, AGE-Platform Europe (AGE)
Graeme Whippy, Senior manager IT accessibility, Lloyds banking Group

Organised by:

With the co-operation of:

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 5
2. Setting up a dialogue among industry, government and NGOs............................... 6
3. A framework for the discussion: Context and Trends .............................................. 7
3.1 Political, Economic and Social Context ................................................................... 7
3.2 Trends ................................................................................................................... 12
4. Analysis ................................................................................................................... 16
4.1 Demand side ......................................................................................................... 16
4.2 Supply side ............................................................................................................ 18
4.3 Role of Government ............................................................................................. 19
4.4 Role of other intermediaries ................................................................................ 20
4.5 Driving the Business case in a dynamic perspective ............................................ 20
5. Outcomes and Next Steps ...................................................................................... 22

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1. Introduction

Employment, skills, and accessible technology are key to making greater progress
towards broad digital inclusion. This invitation-only workshop jointly organized by
Microsoft and ONCE on the 14th June 2010 was an opportunity to facilitate a high
level, multi-stakeholder dialogue on how to promote greater employment
opportunities for people with disabilities with a focus on practical technical and policy
solutions.

The dialogue was structured around two key documents: (1) New Skills for New Jobs:
Action Now that is a report by the Expert Group on New Skills for New Jobs prepared
for the European Commission (February 2010); and (2) Post Crisis: e-Skills Are Needed
to Drive Europe’s Innovation Society, an IDC White Paper sponsored by Microsoft
(November 2009).

Below we reproduce an illustrative snapshot of the themes addressed in the workshop
as a word cloud made from the http://www.wordle.net/.

5


2. Setting up a dialogue among industry, government and
NGOs

The workshop set up a dialogue among representatives from the industry, government
and NGO sectors. Industry was represented by global companies Microsoft, Repsol,
British Telecom and Lloyd’s. Government participants were from the European
Commission - Information Society and Media Directorate-General (eInclusion Unit) and
the Employment and Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Directorate-General (Unit
Integration of People with disabilities) of the European Commission. Finally, NGOs and
user organizations included the European Disability Forum –EDF (EU), AGE Platform
Europe (EU), ONCE (ES), Technosite (ES), Abilitynet (UK), Employers’ Forum on
Disability- EFD (UK), and I2BC (ES).

By design the workshop was structured to include the participation of some
representatives of the entire labour market value chain:

 Demand for labour (the employers): organizations that hire employees or
workers with disabilities (eg. Private sector –large and small enterprises- and
public sector).
 Supply of labour (the employees): people with disabilities hired by an employer
to do a specific "job". They contribute labour and expertise to an endeavour.
 Intermediaries: a third party that offers intermediation services between two
trading parties (eg. NGOs, Unions, Training Organizations and Government 1).

1
Government is considered as an intermediary for its role of providing awareness, incentives and regulation for the
market.

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3. A framework for the discussion: Context and Trends

During the first part of the discussion, the social, economic and political framework
was outlined by presentations from Elena Bonfiglioli -Director of Citizenship of
Microsoft-, Jose Angel Martinez Usero -Director of International Projects and Relations,
Technosite- ONCE Foundation, Miguel González Sancho –Deputy Head of eInclusion
Unit, DG Information Society and Media EC- and Inmaculada Placencia –Deputy Head
of Integration of People with disabilities Unit, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal
Opportunities- and refined through the discussion by all of participants. While the
themes addressed were diverse, they all contributed in setting the context and the
trends for the discussion.

3.1 Political, Economic and Social Context

From the political perspective, several key initiatives were highlighted:

1. UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted on 13
December 2006 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and opened
for signature on 30 March 2007. There are 145 signatories to the Convention,
87 ratifications of the Convention and 89 signatories to the Optional Protocol
and 54 ratifications of the Optional Protocol. The Convention entered into force
on 3 May 2008 (http://www.un.org/disabilities).

2. The Employment Equality Directive 2000/78/EC, prevents discrimination as
well as harassment and instruction to discriminate 2. All employers must
provide ‘reasonable accommodation’ for people with disabilities, which means

2
In the Article 2 Concept of discrimination from the Employment Equality Directive 2000/78/EC, the definition of
direct, indirect discrimination, harassment and instructions to discriminate are the followings: “(1) direct
discrimination shall be taken to occur where one person is treated less favorably than another is, has been or would
be treated in a comparable situation, on any of the grounds referred to in Article 1; (2) indirect discrimination shall
be taken to occur where an apparently neutral provision, criterion or practice would put persons having a particular
religion or belief, a particular disability, a particular age, or a particular sexual orientation at a particular
disadvantage compared with other persons unless: (i) that provision, criterion or practice is objectively justified by a
legitimate aim and the means of achieving that aim are appropriate and necessary, or (ii) as regards persons with a
particular disability, the employer or any person or organization to whom this Directive applies, is obliged, under
national legislation, to take appropriate measures in line with the principles contained in Article 5 in order to
eliminate disadvantages entailed by such provision, criterion or practice. 3. Harassment shall be deemed to be a
form of discrimination within the meaning of paragraph 1, when unwanted conduct related to any of the grounds
referred to in Article 1 takes place with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person and of creating an
intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. In this context, the concept of harassment
may be defined in accordance with the national laws and practice of the Member States. 4. An instruction to
discriminate against persons on any of the grounds referred to in Article 1 shall be deemed to be discrimination
within the meaning of paragraph 1”.

(http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32000L0078:en:HTML)

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that people with disabilities have a right to adaptations in the workplace in
order to be able to fulfil their job. Many Member States have had to
substantially amend national laws to comply with these employment
regulations. (http://ec.europa.eu/social/)

3. Europe 2020: A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth 3. On 26
March 2010, the European Council reached an agreement on the European
Commission’s EU2020 strategy. On that basis, the European Commission
drafted the economic policy and employment guidelines that Member States
will have to follow when drawing and implementing National Reform
Programmes. Some of the 10 guidelines are particularly relevant for this
discussion:

a. Guideline 7: Increasing labour market participation and reducing structural
unemployment
b. Guideline 8: Developing a skilled workforce responding to labour market
needs, promoting job quality and lifelong learning
c. Guideline 9: Improving the performance of education and training systems at
all levels and increasing participation in tertiary education
d. Guideline 10: Promoting social inclusion and combating poverty

e. Within Europe 2020, special attention was given to a Flagship Initiative:
"An Agenda for new skills and jobs". The aim is to create conditions for
modernising labour markets with a view to raising employment levels
and ensuring the sustainability of social models. This means
empowering people through the acquisition of new skills to enable the
current and future workforce to adapt to new conditions and potential
career shifts, reduce unemployment and raise labour productivity.

4. European Disability Strategy. The European Commission is working on the
European Disability Strategy, contributing to the Europe 2020 initiative. It will
include a section on employment that will identify instruments, initiatives and
relevant types of actions for implementation.

5. European Digital Agenda 4. The Digital Agenda is the first of seven flagship
initiatives under the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive
3
Following the Commission's communication "Europe 2020: a strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth"
and the discussions held in the Council, on the 25-26 March 2010, the European Council reached an agreement on
the new strategy, which will be formally adopted in June. The Europe 2020 strategy put forward by the Commission
sets out a vision of Europe's social market economy for the 21st century. It shows how the EU can come out
stronger from the crisis and how it can be turned into a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy delivering high
levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion (http://ec.europa.eu/eu2020).
4
Brussels, 19.5.2010. COM (2010)245 final. Communication from the commission to the European parliament, the
council, the European economic and social committee and the committee of the regions: A Digital Agenda for
Europe.

8


growth. The Agenda outlines seven priority areas for action: creating a digital
Single Market, greater interoperability, boosting internet trust and security,
much faster internet access, more investment in research and development,
enhancing digital literacy skills and inclusion, and applying information and
communications technologies to address challenges facing society like climate
change and the ageing population. The action areas related to enhancing digital
literacy, skills and inclusion, which are addressed in two different sub-chapters:
Digital literacy and skills; and inclusive digital services. The two key actions
envisaged in this area are:

a. Key Action 10: Propose digital literacy and competences as a priority for
the European Social Fund regulation (2014-2020).
b. Key Action 11: By 2012, develop tools to identify and recognise the
competences of ICT practitioners and users, linked to the European
Qualifications Framework 5 and to EUROPASS 6 and develop a European
Framework for ICT Professionalism to increase the competences and
the mobility of ICT practitioners across Europe.

Other relevant actions are to:

c. Make digital literacy and skills a priority of the "New skills for new jobs"
Flagship to be launched in 2010 7, including the launch of a multi-
stakeholder sectoral council for ICT skills and employment to address
demand and supply aspects.
d. Promote a higher participation of young women and women returners
in the ICT workforce through support for web-based training resources,
game based eLearning and social networking.
e. Develop in 2011 an online consumer education tool on new media
technologies (e.g. consumer rights on the internet, eCommerce, data
protection, media literacy, social networks etc.). This tool will provide
customised information and education materials for consumers,
teachers and other multipliers in the 27 Member States.
f. Propose by 2013 EU-wide indicators of digital competences and media
literacy.
g. Systematically evaluate accessibility in revisions of legislation
undertaken under the Digital Agenda, e.g. eCommerce, eIdentity &
eSignature, following the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities.

5
Cf. Recommendation of the European Council and the Parliament on the European Qualifications Framework for
lifelong learning.
6
Cf. Decision No 2241/2004/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 2004 on a single
Community framework for the transparency of qualifications and competences (Europass).
7
Cf. New Skills for New Jobs – COM (2008) 868 - e-Skills for the 21st Century – COM (2007) 496 - and the
forthcoming Europe 2020 flagship.

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h. Based on a review of options, make proposals by 2011 that will ensure
that public sector websites (and websites providing basic services to
citizens) are fully accessible by 2015.
i. Facilitate by 2012, in cooperation with Member States and relevant
stakeholders, a Memorandum of Understanding on Digital Access for
persons with disabilities in compliance with the UN Convention.

Concerning the Member States, as stated in the document, they should:

j. Implement by 2011 long-term e-skills and digital literacy policies and
promote relevant incentives for SMEs and disadvantaged groups.
k. Implement by 2011 the provisions on disability in the Telecoms
Framework and the Audiovisual Media Services Directive.
l. Mainstream eLearning in national policies for the modernisation of
education and training, including in curricula, assessment of learning
outcomes and the professional development of teachers and trainers.

6. Related Financial Tools provided by EC. The EC provides a range of funding
opportunities to support eInclusion for people with disabilities. One current
example is an open call for proposals for pilot projects on employment of
persons with autism spectrum disorders. The aim of this call is to fund projects,
which develop or test approaches to improve access to and retention in the
open labour market for persons with ASD in a practical manner. The
Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) 8 was also
mentioned as a financial tool in the topic of discussion.

The main theme across all these policy initiatives is that there is a need for both broad
policy actions related to disability, ICT and skills along with more focused and targeted
actions.

The socioeconomic overview outlined how the economic crisis is affecting the
employment of people with disabilities. First, it is important to distinguish between
what has been termed the “open” market and the “protected” market 9 for people with
disabilities. The current economic crisis is impacting both negatively.

On the one hand, Member States are reducing their public investments, which affect
negatively the integration of people with disabilities and older workers to the labour

8
http://ec.europa.eu/cip/
9
The term open market is used generally to refer to a situation close to free trade, which means without
interference from government. On the other hand, protected market is usually used to refer the situation where
there is a governmental intervention (eg. Regulation on a compulsory rate of employment by people with
disabilities in private companies and public organizations)

10


market. On the other, the enterprises are also reducing the workforce, which reduces
the employment opportunities and increases the competition for scarce jobs

Special attention must been paid to young people with disabilities and low skilled
people with disabilities. The combination of risks for these groups must be addressed.
The importance of investing in skills development must be focused in particular on
people with disabilities with low and medium skills.

Concerning eSkills, despite the progression of the last two years, 36% of Europeans
lack even basic digital skills as Miguel González-Sancho highlighted from the Europe's
Digital Competitiveness Report 2010, published by European Commission on 17th May
2010. When you look at the segment of the disadvantaged group, only 45% of these
people have these skills and even fewer (34%) among the older people (above age 65).
Unfortunately, we lack specific skills data for people with disabilities and older
people 10.

Elena Bonfiglioli pointed out that there has never been a better time to invest in skills.
Microsoft commissioned a study by IDC 11 that interviewed 1400 employers in order to
explore demand for job profiles and skills in the future. More than 90% of the jobs in
the future will require substantial eSkills. To meet those requirements, it will be crucial
to empower the groups that are most fragile or disadvantaged. eSkills can unlock
employability for everyone.

In view of these trends, Microsoft is committed to investing eSkills development across
the globe. Not just in Europe, but worldwide the company has been working with
NGOs to increase the level of digital skills of the population in general and specifically
to empower people with disabilities with greater access to work. Moreover, the
company has also been working on job training, life long learning, eLearning and
increasing the level of ICT skills of civil servants.

Ms. Bonfiglioli outlined the importance of integrating educational, social inclusion and
competitiveness strategies in order to have a significant impact on the employment of
people with disabilities.

Finally, the discussion focused on the need for a smoother and faster transition
between “learning and earning”, meaning that we need to bring together the worlds of
education, work and training. The IDC study makes clear that today’s university
graduates lack marketable knowledge 12. That is very significant and explains why we

10
Regarding older people the current European (and thus comparative) data available only concern people until 74.
Over 74 we have no clue whereas this segment of the population will grow more and more (see section 3.2 Trends)
11
Post Crisis: e-Skills Are Needed to Drive Europe’s Innovation Society, an IDC White Paper sponsored by Microsoft
(November 2009).
12
“However, regular assessment of study curricula is also urgently needed to ensure that graduates enter the
workforce with the most marketable skills and knowledge. Not only should this include ensuring that ICT graduates
are trained at the forefront of technology (e.g., cloud technologies, Web 2.0) but also that they have much stronger
insight into the business impact of technology — what we previously referred to as business empathy. To do this
requires close, ongoing collaboration between the ICT industry and the education sector” at Post Crisis: e-Skills Are
Needed to Drive Europe’s Innovation Society, an IDC White Paper sponsored by Microsoft (November 2009); page 12

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have on the one side a high unemployment figure and on the other side skills
mismatch and shortages. It is an unsustainable waste of potential and resources.

No further conclusions can be reached on the role played by ICT skills in employability
of people with disabilities because of the lack of sufficient data. For instance, we have
data on the diffusion and impact of ICT skills on employability; we have data on the
employability of disabled person; but we lack cross-cutting data on the diffusion and
impact of ICT skills on employability of people with disabilities. Data collection efforts
and analysis must be improved.

3.2 Trends

1. Increasing older workforce and dependency ratio. The European population
projection for the next fifty years 13, underlines both the rising number of older
and elderly people and the increasing dependency ratio – which is the ratio of
those typically not in the labour force (dependent portion) to those typically in
the labour force (productive portion).

a. This demographic trend will make even more important the
competitiveness and productivity of all employees and will require a
much improved aligning of skills and job positions. Furthermore, it will
lead to a growing number of ageing workers requiring flexible and
adapted training programs to meet the demands of rapidly changing ICT
and business environments. Life-long learning will be important to
adapt their skills to the dynamic needs in the market. It also will be
important to have accessible and adaptable working environments and
conditions, including carers leave, flexible hours and phased retirement
in order to address this demographic shift.

2. Increasing the eSkills demand in the labour market. Microsoft representatives
presented evidence on the increasing demand for eSkills in the labour market.
A specific figure from the IDC study demonstrates the growing importance of
ICT in the workplace: When considering requirements for the new jobs of
tomorrow, it is clear gaps exist in curriculum development for key areas like:
Green ICT; eHealth; Cybersecurity; and Cloud computing. These are four areas
in which technology is making tremendous progress in advancing our well-
being, increasing the innovation of our society, while also providing

13
See Eurostat’s latest demographic projection scenario: The EU population is projected to become older with the
median age rising from 40.4 years in 2008 to 47.9 years in 2060. The share of people aged 65 years or over in the
total EU population is projected to increase from 17.1 % to 30.0 %. And the number of 65 year olds is projected to
rise from 84.6 million in 2008 to 151.5 million in 2060. Similarly, the number of people aged 80 years or over is
projected to almost triple from 21.8 million in 2008 to 61.4 million in 2060.
(http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Population_projections)

12


opportunities for professional growth. To fully grasp these opportunities, the
labour market will need people skilled enough to deliver and adopt those
innovations. In order to meet the ICT skills demands of Europe's innovation
society, governments, universities, and the private sector must work in concert
to create education and skills development programs that will supply the
market with qualified graduates and professionals, while being fluid enough to
evolve with the increasing demands of technology developments and business
needs. If ignored, the lack of ICT skills will be the bottleneck that prevents
Europe from being competitive in the global economy and a leading innovation
society.

3. Increasing the demand of high skilled people. The discussion from the study
“New Skills for New Jobs14” prepared for the European Commission pointed out
that a highly skilled workforce is a more employable workforce (e.g. across the
EU, those with medium level qualifications are 40 % more likely to be employed
than those with low level qualification). A more highly skilled workforce is also
a better-paid workforce and a more productive and satisfied workforce.

a. To complete a global, knowledge-based economy, Europe will require
highly skilled people to drive an innovation society. In fact, the
difference in global competitiveness across countries15 can be explained
by the level of skills investments of those countries.

14
New Skills for New Jobs: Action Now that it is a report by the Expert Group on New Skills for New Jobs prepared
for the European Commission (February 2010)
15
The Global Competitiveness Index is developed by the World Economic Forum to measure factors that set the
sustainable current and medium-term levels of economic prosperity of a country.

13


b. As the study on “New Skills for New Jobs” mentions16: “The latest
projections up to the year 2020 show that due to the crisis we can
expect a smaller number of new job opportunities to become available.
It is not all doom and gloom: in the next decade, we expect some 80
million job opportunities to arise, including almost 7 million new
additional jobs. Most of these jobs will require a more highly skilled
workforce. As we can see in Figure 3 and 4, the ‘skill intensity’ of jobs
has been rising in recent years and is expected to continue to do so.
Most job creation is projected for higher-level occupations but also for
occupations involved in service activities. As a result we expect the
proportion of jobs employing high-qualified people to increase to over a
third, the proportion employing those with low qualifications to
decrease to 15%. Those requiring medium level qualification will
continue to constitute half of all jobs”. Find bellow two figures, that are
above mentioned, from the study from CEDEFOP, 2010.

16
New Skills for New Jobs: Action Now that is a report by the Expert Group on New Skills for New Jobs prepared for
the European Commission (February 2010)

14


4. The combination of these last two trends (b and c) presents a significant risk for
people with disabilities and for society in general. Faced with these growing and
self-reinforcing risks, a “business as usual” approach is not an option. Proactive
action is needed now to avoid possible future scenarios of even higher
unemployment rates for people with disabilities and growing social and
economic exclusion.

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4. Analysis

Building on the framework and context presented, the debate and brainstorming
session focused on identifying key actions from both the demand and supply side of
the issue of employment for people with disabilities and on defining roles for all
stakeholders, government, industry, and NGOs.

Different perspectives of the challenges and opportunities were shared in order to
create a potential common picture and a win-win scenario with incentives and
deliverables for all the stakeholders involved. The result is the beginnings of a business
case for increasing the employability of people with disabilities in a competitive labour
market.

4.1 Demand side

Industry partners participating in the workshop shared their good practices for the
employment of people with disabilities and highlighted the barriers, needs and
challenges that they are facing.

The key elements that emerged are:

1. The relevance of leadership in the employability strategy of people with
disabilities, including through the involvement of the top-level management.

2. The significant role of organisational attitude: driving a real commitment has to
be part of the culture of the enterprise.

3. The importance of partnerships and mentorship of experts and intermediary
organizations representing people with disabilities. For example, collaborating
with ONCE has been a key element of success for Repsol, a leader in recruiting
people with disabilities in Spain.

4. Accessibility issues must be taken into account from all the life stages of the
employment:

16


First, any vacancy information, including through newsletters or employment
portals (eg. Portalento 17 and Able to Work 18), should be accessible.

Second, the recruitment process should guarantee the accessibility of the
interview and be adapted to people with disabilities. Rules and recruitment
procedures (eg. Logical reasoning exams) should be modified to account for
people with disabilities. In addition, job requirements should be more
outcomes-focused and less about the process to achieve those outcomes.

Finally, integrating the employee into the actual workplace should help to
guarantee the performance of necessary job functions, such asthe accessibility
of the environment (physical and technological); the access to necessary
information for on-the-job learning, e.g. accessible contents and some coaching
resources to help if necessary-; and an accompanying process for social
integration with the rest of the workers if necessary (e.g. awareness meetings
for the employees chaired by the manager of the company).

5. The need of codifying procedures and workflows to guarantee that accessibility
is taken into account throughout an organization. To that end, Repsol offered
to share with the rest of participants their White Paper on how to integrate
people of disabilities into the workplace.

6. All the job positions of the enterprise should be analysed to identify which ones
could be available or adapted for people with disabilities. It is important to
analyse them by the expected outcome and not by the process.

7. Where appropriate, unions can play a relevant role in the process, including as
part of their communications to and negotiation with the enterprise.

8. The use of flexible workplace measures as a best practice to increase both
productivity and the integration of people with disabilities. As an example, tele-
work is cited as having a very positive impact.

9. The strategy of employing people with disabilities in the enterprise should be
addressed through an economic or competitive approach and not just a social
responsibility one. The outcomes of such approach would be based on the
common interests of both sides –demand and supply- and it would become
more sustainable.

An example of such approach is the EFD’s Accessibility Maturity Model (AMM)
and the AMM scorecard. This is a self-assessment tool designed to help
organisations to improve the accessibility of ICT systems, products and services.

17
http://www.portalento.es
18
http://www.abletowork.org/

17


The tool can be used to develop a robust policy for accessible ICT with
reference to existing disability, flexible working and other relevant policies.

10. The useful role of a Disability Passport, which is a confidential document
between an individual and their line manager. It helps employees who have a
disability, who believe their health may have an impact on their job in the
future, or who have a caring need to get the support they need without having
to renegotiate their adjustments with every line manager they encounter in
their career with an employer 19.

The passport is voluntary and mutually agreed. It is confidential and the
manager is responsible for ensuring that their copy is handed onto the
individual’s next line manager when they relinquish their line manager role of
that person. The person keeps a copy of their passport and takes it them to
whatever job they may move to or if they change manager and this should
ensure continuity in the approach taken by the enterprise.

11. The need to address together with the public sector cost barriers to providing
accessible work environments and tools.

12. The role of Diversity Awards in a company to recognise employees who
champion fairness and equality.

4.2 Supply side

From a supply-side perspective, the following key elements were highlighted during
the workshop:

1. The potential employee with a disability can best define what he is able to on
the job. Misconceptions about disability should be discussed together and
confronted.
2. Awareness about the augmented skills 20 of people with disabilities should be
done to better match skills with job positions, to increase the employability of
people with disabilities, and to increase the competitiveness of the enterprise
(eg. A study carried by ONCE on 2009: ALTERA 21, provides information on that)

3. The barrier of initial work experience is common to many graduates and is a
much bigger obstacle for people with disabilities. They often have even greater
difficulty finding a first job. One possible solution discussed, could be for

19
http://www.cwumc.org/html/bt__disability__passport.html
20
Specific skills developed by people with disability that allow them to carry out a task in better conditions that
people without disabilities.
21
http://www.proyectoaltera.es/

18


educational organizations to provide internships and working experience as
part of their curricula.

4. The differences between older workers and people with disabilities. It should
also be considered that there are differences between people with disabilities
and older workers in terms of their needs for accommodation in their
employment. The needs of older workers should not be seen only from the
perspective of advancing physical decline. Many older workers continue to
enjoy good health and are fit and active. However increasing numbers of older
workers, in particular women aged 50+, have family care responsibilities for
their ageing parents and young grandchildren. This needs a more flexible
approach from their employers to enable them to better reconcile their
professional and caring duties.

4.3 Role of Government

The participants at the workshop recognized the important role of Government and
outlined the following key actions:

1. Their role as a provider of data for a comprehensive picture that drives a better
understanding between supply and demand side, as well as the intermediaries’
potential action. It should monitor and evaluate the situation for policy-
oriented purposes but also to provide information to industry, NGOs and
general public.

2. Governments can be a key player raising awareness across industry, but also
throughout the public sector at all levels. The government’s first step should be
to become an exemplary employer.

3. The importance of incentives and allocation of resources is one of the important
actions of governments 22.

4. Creating a regulatory framework to promote and protect the employability of

22
As an example outlined in New Skills for New Jobs: Action Now that is a report by the Expert Group on New Skills
for New Jobs prepared for the European Commission (February 2010): “Make greater use and better evaluate the
impact of learning accounts or learning vouchers, especially for low-skilled workers, based on the principle of ‘co-
investment’ by government, individuals and employers, as appropriate. Use tax relief or lower interest rates on
borrowing to provide investment by individuals/employers at preferential rates. Establish co-investment as part of
collective agreements and work contracts for people in work, and via counseling/PES for the unemployed” (p.20)

19


4.4 Role of other intermediaries

NGOs and Organisations representing people with disabilities should pursue their
work helping the industry and public sector to set up processes that help promote the
inclusion of people with disabilities in labour market.

Their leadership in raising awareness across the public authorities and the private
sector is crucial. In that respect, these organisations should also coordinate their
efforts with organizations representing older people so that common goals and
objectives can be jointly addressed. On the other hand, it is important not to equate
the needs of disabled workers with those of older workers. The first ones need specific
accommodation of their disability; older workers need appropriate ergonomic
adaptation of their working environment to compensate for or accommodate any
physical decline as well as adjustment of their working conditions to allow them the
flexibility to balance work with family caring responsibilities.

The cooperation that these organizations have developed with employment services
and enterprises appears to be very positive and should be further developed. In that
sense, they should act not only on work and employment, but also on education. It is
essential to act in a coordinated way in both areas. The experience of ONCE confirms
this necessity. In fact, ONCE has provided 6.292 training courses for 54.198 people and
created 71.269 jobs in the last 22 years. This experience underscores the importance
of working from the very beginning of the process, from the education side identifying
what are the skills and the potential the people, until the identification of suitable job
for the skills developed.

Finally, training organizations should coordinate with enterprises and associations of
people with disabilities to match their educational programs with the needs of the
market and the perspective of the people. One good practice in this area was
highlighted by Technosite, who provides an Online Master of accessible technologies
together with the Virtual University of Catalonia 23. Both Technosite and the University
identified this potential and high skilled market for incorporating people with
disabilities. Currently, 40% of their students are people with disabilities. However,
barriers still remain for these students when they enter the labour market. The main
barriers are misconceptions more than economic ones that are still in some private
and also public employers.

4.5 Driving the Business case in a dynamic perspective

Bringing together all the perspectives and potential roles of the various stakeholders
involved allows for creating a dynamic business case for increasing the employability of

23
http://www.technosite.es/masterUOC/index.html

20


spur significant sharedresults as illustrated by the symbol √ in the figure.
The figure below begins to summarize this joint effort. Actions by each stakeholder can

Most importantly, the combination of these shared benefits drives the ultimate goals
(in the central overlap) of increased match in the labour market, resulting in positive
impact on both competitiveness and inclusion.

The ultimate goal of this business case is to combine the actions of the different
stakeholders in order to increase the bilateral and central overlaps: in other words, to
achieve an impact where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

21


5. Outcomes and Next Steps

At a conclusion of the workshop, 5 key next steps were agreed:

First, as a result of the workshop, a Summary Report will be produced to capture the
main content and agreements reached during the session. This is that Summary
Report.

Second, Microsoft committed to develop a suite of ICT training tools and resources for
employers who would like to strengthen their commitment to accessibility in the
workplace. The development is being done in partnership with Abilitynet, ONCE, Lloyds
Bank and others.

Third, Microsoft committed to write a Policy White Paper on the topic of accessibility
and employment that will include input from this workshop and other partners.

Fourth, ONCE and ONCE Foundation will develop a set of initiatives to foster new skills
that facilitates the inclusion of people with disabilities in a better job market as well as
to encourage and support companies in facilitating the inclusion of people with
disabilities: specific studies (eg. Case study of Repsol); R&D projects (Altera)
management tools (Easy Call Center) and specific bilateral agreements.

Finally, the organisers consider creating an open space for discussion and sharing
among stakeholders to identify and support collaborative initiatives among a wide
range of relevant European and international actors.

22

ONCE & Microsoft report on new skills for new jobs

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