>From the web page http://www.conf-us-ue-disability.org/docsen/face.htm PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES FACE EMPLOYMENT USING NEW TECHNOLOGIES US/UE Conference. Harnessing the Information Society to Raise Employment Levels for People with Disabilities ____________________________________________________ * United States and the European Union have coordinated their efforts in the planning and implementation of a Transatlantic Conference that will take place in Madrid on the 26th and 27th October 1998. * The role of governments is crucial to achieve labour and social integration for people with disabilities on both sides of the Atlantic. * New Technologies present possibilities to achieve higher employment rates for people with disabilities. * The interchange of strategies and practical measures will lead to success in employment promotion. * New legislation in Europe and the United States is oriented toward non-discrimination on the grounds of disabilities and to equal opportunities. * People with disabilities today count on the support of the international community to promote their inclusion and integration. Key dates in the process of labour integration: * 1982: World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons, adopted by Resolution 37/52 on December 2, of the General Assembly of the United Nations. * 1990: Americans with Disabilities Act. * 1993: Resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations 48/46 of December 29, on Standard Rules of Equal Opportunities for People with Disabilities. * 1996: Communication on Equal Opportunities for People with Disabilities. * 1997: Treaty of Amsterdam (June). * 1998: National Action Plans for the Employment of Member States of the European Union, developing Guideline 19. _______________________________________________________ _______________ About ten per cent of the population in the Member States of the European Union experiences some type of disability according to the criterion used by experts. The U.S. Social Security Administration reports that between its warnings tested program and its means tested program, more than eight million people with disabilities receive Social Security benefits. Nationally, more than fifty-four million U.S. residents reported some kind of disability according to the U.S. Census Bureau. International organisations, and especially different bodies within the European Union and the Federal Government of the United States have undertaken programs for the social and economic integration of people with disabilities, in order to confront the problems this important sector of the population experiences. International and national bodies recommend that government programs which foster dependency be redesigned to advance the full social and employment integration of people with disabilities. Both in Europe and the United States the unemployment percentages of people with disabilities are radically higher than those of people without disabilities. In recent years, Associations and Federations of people with disabilities have adopted more ambitious initiatives to speed up the integration processes. People with disabilities currently count on the support of the international community to promote integration and inclusion for people with disabilities. For the first time the European Union and the United States of America have co-ordinated their efforts in the planning and implementation of a Transatlantic Conference, which will be held in Madrid on 26 and 27 October, 1998. This Conference, which will feature experts from each one of the Member States of the European Union and the United States, will discuss the possibilities that new technologies present to increase the employment rates for people with disabilities. During the Conference the best practices of the different countries will be presented and shared to exchange successful strategies to promote employment for people with disabilities. 1. - Diachronic Analysis People with disabilities wish to become actively involved in mainstreamed community life on both sides of the Atlantic. Their movement is inspired by the focus on fundamental rights, which has led them to demand inclusion (as opposed to exclusion), independence (as opposed to dependence) and strengthening (as opposed to patronising attitudes). The situation people with disabilities experience in developed countries has evolved from policies which resulted in segregation and dependence, to the development of policies and programs that promote the full integration and independence of people with disabilities in employment, and in the mainstream of community life. The role of governments is crucial in achieving these goals on both sides of the Atlantic. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is one institution which, at an international level and in the specific field of rehabilitation, has played a continuous and committed role in favour of people with disabilities. The turning point in the long-life struggle for civil rights for people with disabilities in the United States came with the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, a comprehensive civil rights law which affords individuals with disabilities civil rights protections in employment and most other areas of community life. On their part, the European Union promoted their active policies publishing in July 1996 a Communication of the Commission on Equality of Opportunities for Disabled Population. Moreover, it included an article on non-discrimination in the new Treaty of Amsterdam, and highlighted the attention National Action Plans for the Employment must pay to people with disabilities, pursuant to the agreement signed at the Extraordinary European Council on Employment held at Luxembourg (November 1997). 2. - International Legislation on Disability Before the reform of the Maastrich Treaty and up to 1993, the Community Treaties maintain the option of not vesting the Community with the powers needed to establish some basic policy criteria, which are binding for all Member States. The actions the Community undertook in favour of people with disabilities as a whole were limited in the core to recommendations and statements of intentions, and to measures of economic support which, though important, did not recognise nor guarantee the least social rights for this group. It is shortly after this when the need to create a European Social Space begins to be felt; however, except the social provisions integrated in other community competencies related, the Community did not count on a binding authority. Surprising as it may seem, the person with disabilities did not have any right recognised by the European Union, not even the most basic one of not being discriminated on the grounds of his or her disability, till that issue was included in Article 13 of the Amsterdam Treaty (June 1997). In as much as the measures specifically addressed to people with disabilities are concerned, they have primarily been oriented to the establishment, founding and execution of three programs, linked to the European Social Fund (ESF). Along with these programs, and connected with them, the Community has undertaken the most diverse initiatives tending to gradually achieve the complete integration of people with disabilities within society. The first of these programs was adopted in January 1974, and had the inconvenience of being too general and limited. In 1981, with the celebration of the International Year for Disabled People, a change was produced towards a more comprehensive focus on disabilities within the social community policy, taking in consideration other aspects apart from the labour problem people with disabilities suffered. The Parliament called on governments to pay attention to the need for them to adopt compensating measures to fight against poverty, and to endorse a program to improve the access of people with disabilities to public buildings, urban infrastructure and public collective means of transportation. The Council, by means of the Recommendation of July 24, 1986 on the Employment of People with Disabilities in the Community, advised member States to adopt several blocks of measures directed to guarantee an equal treatment regarding employment and vocational training. It also called on them to intensify their national policies, particularly establishing positive active measures (such as fixing quantified employment objectives for people with disabilities in medium and big enterprises). By means of the Resolution of the Council held on April 18, 1988 it was adopted a second program of community action: HELIOS. This program "related to the fostering of professional training and rehabilitation, of the social and economic integration and of the autonomous life of people with disabilities", was to be applied in a four-year term (1988-1991). It also displayed a too general scope and limitations, though it granted a remarkable leading role to new technologies, particularly computer ones, as well as to the linkage of the program with previous community initiatives, such as school integration of students with disabilities. When the period of validity of the program HELIOS was arriving at its date of expiration, the Commission approved, on December 18 1990, the initiative HORIZON. This initiative tended to improve the conditions of the group of people with disabilities and other disadvantaged groups in a four-year term (1990-1993). In respect of people with disabilities, the objective pursued was to boost the conditions of their access to the work force, particularly offering them training on new technologies, and adapting infrastructures to their specific needs. At the same time it tried to facilitate their access to those economic sectors from which they have traditionally been segregated. In order to accomplish those objectives, the Commission established a series of specific measures, such as the following: creation of SMEs and co-operatives; elaboration of projects to improve their mobility and specifically their access to the working site; an awareness campaign for enterprises and social partners on the problems people with disabilities have to face; the creation of vocational training centres; the appointment of teams of physiotherapists who ease the vocational training for people with disabilities; and finally, to promote the circulation and interchange of information and experiences on the access of people with disabilities to vocational training and employment. After four years in force, the program HELIOS was replaced by HELIOS II, which was endorsed by means of the decision the Council adopted on February 25 1993, for the period of 1993-1996. As opposed to the previous, the new program included a concept equally wide (though better shaped) of what can be considered as disability, but it did not go back to the primitive referent of the loss of working capacity. The last assessment report of the aforementioned program, which the Commission approved at the beginning of this year, highlighted its innovative character for having emphasised the incorporation of people with disabilities into active life in the widest possible degree. In the Commissioner of Social Affairs' words, it "has opened several doors, has defined many options and has launched important processes for the promotion of an European dialogue in relation to people with disabilities". 3. - Current Situation 3.1. - United Nations The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted in 1993 the Standard Rules of the United Nations on the Equality of Opportunities for People with Disabilities. This document is the referent of the universal rights for people with disabilities, and operates as framework for reflection for the policies each and every State must follow. 3.2. - United States The path to integration for people with disabilities in the United States has a long history. Among the most important legislative measures adopted is the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. This law which served as the statutory basis for the provision of rehabilitation services for people with disabilities, also prohibited discrimination against people with disabilities in federal employment, by employers with contracts with the federal government, and by recipients of federal funds. Although it was an important step, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 did not prohibit discrimination in a sufficient number of areas. In July 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted to complement the Rehabilitation Act, and to extend the prohibitions of discrimination to areas not covered by the earlier legislation. Under this ADA, all private sector employers who employ 15 or more people, may not discriminate against individuals with disabilities in recruiting, hiring, placing or advancing in employment individuals with disabilities who can perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodations. Employers also must make reasonable accommodations for workers with disabilities who need it, unless this will cause undue hardship. Discrimination is also prohibited in state and local government services and employment, and by places of public accommodation, such as hotels, restaurants, movie theatres, etc. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission can investigate claims of discrimination in private sector employment, and the U.S. Department of Justice can investigate claims in state and local government and public accommodations. 3.3. - European Union As regards the European Union, this path towards integration started to be oriented when, in December 1996, the Commission published the Communication on Equal Opportunities for People with Disabilities. This document starts from the analysis of the existing situation for people with disabilities within the European framework, and suggests the need to adopt a new political approach: that of "equal opportunities". The turning point came with the celebration of the Inter-Government Conference, inaugurated in March 1996, for the reform of the Treaties of the European Union. Representatives of the Member States discussed the report elaborated by a group of experts, which called on the inclusion of a clause on non-discrimination on the grounds of disability. In this way, the new Treaty of Amsterdam of June 1997 incorporated article 6~ (number 13 in the Consolidated version) with reference to non-discrimination. Apart from that it includes a statement by which the Community is urged to take in consideration the needs of people with disabilities when devising legislation on the domestic market. On November 20 and 21 1997, the Extraordinary European Council on Employment was held in Luxembourg, being in its agenda the bringing into line of the orientations in the matter of employment, and at the same time to make effective the chapter on employment included in the Treaty of Amsterdam. In the conclusions adopted it was included an explicit mention for Member States to pay special attention to the labour incorporation of people with disabilities. This intention was reflected in the guidelines adopted by the Council on December 15 1997, for the elaboration of the National Action Plans for the Employment of each of the Member States. Such orientations comprise four areas: employability (so as to enhance their professional insertion ability), development of entrepreneurship, accommodation of both employers and workers, and finally, equal opportunities. It was included under the fourth pillar, in guideline 19, which read: "Promotion of the Integration of People with Disabilities in Active Life". This explicit commitment meant an important step beyond, especially if we consider that it was included in the section related to the consolidation of equal opportunities policies. (In Appendix I we include a chart with the specific measures reported by each of the Member States in the European Union regarding employment, rehabilitation and training, as well as the compensating or special measures which they have included in their National Action Plans for the Employment of 1998). In the European Summit held at Cardiff last June 1998, it was remarked that the orientations for employment of each of the Member States ought to fight discrimination against people with disabilities. In the first assessment carried by the European Commission it was mentioned as one of the main problems this group has to face the high rate of unemployment and their dependence on benefits. To overcome the said problems, most of the States propose a wide range of measures to promote participation of people with disabilities in the labour market, and in addition they give an account of the importance education and training has in order to raise employability for this group. They present sheltered workshops as an alternative for those with the hardest difficulties of integration. All in all, the assessment report determining whether the previously mentioned commitments have been complied with will be carried out at the European Council of Vienna, to be held next December 1998. This Council will take into account the conclusions adopted at Cardiff, amongst which stands out that "the orientations, which will lead the future work on employment, will include the fight against discrimination suffered by people with disabilities and other disadvantaged groups in the labour market". 4. - International Organisations of People with Disability. There are several international organisations carrying out their work both in Europe and the United States. They devote their work to disability and labour integration, and amongst the most important are the following: 4.1. - International Scope - At an international level it should be remarked the work of the International Labour Organisation, especially the branch dedicated to rehabilitation. - The International Organisation for the Provision of Work for People with Disabilities and who are occupationally Handicapped (IPWH) is an international organisation as well, devoted to the employment provision for people with disabilities. It has succeeded in becoming the speaker before several institutions, and aims to achieve real labour insertion. 4.2. - United States In the scope of the United States, the following organisations should be highlighted: - The National Council on Disability is an independent federal agency, appointed by the President, to advise him and the Congress on all issues relating to disability. - Employment of people with disabilities is the responsibility of the President's Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities, a public-private partnership of national and state organisations, and individuals working together to increase employment opportunities for disabled persons. It is an independent federal agency, that advises the President on issues relevant to the employment of people with disabilities. 4.3. - European Union - As regards the framework of the European Union, the Directorate-General V of the European Commission counts on unit E4, which is specialised in the Integration of People with Disabilities to increase their employment capacity. - The European Disability Forum (EDF) is an international non-profit organisation, operational since January 1997, and made up of up to 70 European organisations of people with disabilities in the fifteen Member States. It aims to advance disabled people's human rights in all the relevant institutions, international organisations and agencies of the European Union in accordance with the principles of non-discrimination. One of their major goals is to create a political environment in which disability is seen in the context of equality of opportunities, to shift away from the notion of disabled people as passive recipients of care, and thus move towards an independent and equal treatment. 5. - Key dates in the Evolution of Labour Integration. * 1971: Declaration on the Rights of the mentally retarded Persons, adopted by the General Assembly of the UNO. * 1973: United States' Rehabilitation Act. * 1975: Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons, adopted by the General Assembly of the UNO. * 1981: International Year of Disabled Persons. * 1982: World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons, adopted by Resolution 37/52 on December 2, of the General Assembly of the United Nations. * 1983: Recommendation Number 168 of the ILO concerning Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment of Disabled Persons, adopted in June. * 1983-1992: Decade of the United Nations for People with Disabilities, adopted by the General Assembly of the UNO. * 1986: Resolution on the Transportation of People with Disabilities and Old-Aged (September). * 1988-1992: Program HELIOS. * 1990: Americans with Disabilities Act. * 1990: Resolution of the Council relating to the Integration of Children and Young People with Disabilities in the Ordinary Educational Systems. * 1990-1993: Initiative HORIZON. * 1992: Treaty of Maastrich (February). * 1993: Resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations 48/46 of December 29, on Standard Rules of Equal Opportunities for People with Disabilities. * 1993-1994: Initiative TIDE (on rehabilitation technology for old-aged people and people with disabilities). * 1993-1996: Program HELIOS II. * 1995: Resolution on Human Rights for People with Disabilities. * 1996: Communication on Equal Opportunities for People with Disabilities. * 1997: Treaty of Amsterdam (June). * 1997: Extraordinary European Council on Employment in Luxembourg. * 1998: National Action Plans for the Employment of Member States of the European Union, developing Guideline 19. * 1998: European Summit at Cardiff (June). Important as well are the specific actions in favour of medical, educational or professional rehabilitation of specialised Organisations under the UNO (WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO, ILO...) Appendix I Specific measures included in the National Action Plans for the Employment 1998. AUSTRIA | - Creation of a Foundation for the Vocational Qualification of disabled people to be used to provide the requisite infrastructure, equipment and courses, as well as other means of labour integration - Removal of employment-unfriendly factors (through information and recruitment provisions). - Technical aids to be extended to take in the use of special hardware and software for the blind, and communication aids for workers with impaired hearing. - Creation of supported employment working sites to help disabled people find their place in the labour market. | - Creation of transit workplaces in public-utility establishments, using the public-utility integration aid scheme. | - Special measures for vocational support, information and provision of training in special centres as well as in companies. - On-the-job training and provision of follow-up and needs oriented care. | - Special financial incentives for women within the various funding instruments. BELGIUM | - Encouragement of recruitment by means of regional and community subsidies. - The Social Maribel measure will be given a boost and should create another 900 extra jobs in sheltered workshops. - Consultation to social partners to look for new ways of recruitment in the private sector. | | | DENMARK | - Personal assistance for active disabled persons. - Priority access to employment with public employers. - Aids to establish enterprises or self-employment sites. | - Specific rehabilitation measures with private and public employers. | - Specific training measures with private and public employers. | - Grant of financial compensations for reduced working capacity. FINLAND | - Development of a framework of social enterprises and employment co-operatives, self-employment, and creation of enterprises by people with disabilities. - Creation of encouraging measures to promote incorporation to the labour market. Pension systems will be made more flexible so that they do not serve as a deterrent when looking for a job. - The biggest employment offices have special staff concentrating on the placement of disabled job-seekers, in respect of their specific possibilities of employment integration. | - The disabled will be given the opportunity to set their disability pension aside for up to two years (receiving in the meantime a lower but stimulating subsidy) if they want to see if they can cope in working life. - Provision of personalised information. | - Reserve of 5,000 training places a year for the disabled in adult labour market training. | FRANCE | - Special Intervention Program to mobilise enterprises and people with disabilities. 66,000 persons will benefit from it in three years. - Guarantee of resources and subsidies in the recruitment for normal working conditions. - Guarantee of financial resources to support sheltered work. - Increase of the percentage of people with disabilities in staffs over the present 4%. | | - Provision of training for 40,000 people with disabilities, adapting offers to regional and firms' needs. | - To fund the employment program, they will count on a new additional budget of 200, 350 and 200 million FF for the three years (1998, 1999, 2000). GERMANY | - Start of a nation-wide Model Project (involving 32 individual projects) to measure the practical success of employment integration of unemployed people with disabilities. - Creation of technical integration services and employment projects. | | - Building of a European Vocational Centre for young people with disabilities with 250 supported places, in the border areas between Germany and France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The preparation and training will be accepted in the neighbouring countries. | - It is included a summary of the measures in force at present to ease the employment of people with disabilities. GREECE | | | - Legislative regulation to create a global support framework for the better meeting of the educational needs of disabled people. - Creation of Special Technical Schools for disabled people and safeguarding of professional rights for their graduates. - Creation of support centres. - Strengthening of education for disabled children in "normal schools" and institutionalisation of auxiliary personnel positions for the educational and transport needs of these children. - Strengthening of the role of the Advisors in Special Education. | - Passing of a law within the first semester 1998 on the integration of people with disabilities in the social and economic life. - Elaboration of a Pilot programme for the removal of architectural barriers and awareness campaign for the integration. IRELAND | - Development of Pilot Disability Projects with Area Partnership Boards to ease employment integration. - Development of the Employment and Equal Status legislation. - Adoption and development of best practice and suitable expansion of the range of employment subsidies available for people with disability. | - Establishment of a National Disability Authority to replace the National Rehabilitation Board. | | - Establishment of a Disability Support Service to co-ordinate the different measures supporting integration. - Monitoring of the achievement of all those measures adopted for the employment of people with disabilities in the public services. ITALY | - Creation of a new framework to ease the access to employment for people with disabilities. - Modification of the system of compulsory placement services quotas for the disabled. - Introduction of tax incentives in the 1997 Budget Law for disabled people who set up businesses. | | - Establishment of links between schools and local governments aimed at developing relationships, so as to anticipate the integration into the labour market through appropriate training and counselling activities. | LUXEMBOURG | - Extension of the advantages under the law of 12 November 1991 for Disabled Workers to workers with a psychosocial disability. - Computerisation of the compulsory declaration system for jobs to be occupied by disabled persons in the public and private sectors. - Young disabled persons will make more intensive use of the various measures designed to promote employment integration. - The public employment service's specialists will make available Individual vocational guidance. | | | - Provision of an additional funding in the sum of between LUF 1.6 and 2 billion per year, financed partly by a one franc increase in the "social contribution" on leaded and unleaded petrol. - The budget for the integration of people with disabilities will be a yearly compromise with legal recognition. NETHERLANDS | - In 1998 the (Re)integration of Disabled Workers Act will come into effect. This includes economic compensations for employers and specific exemptions when recruiting or reintegrating disabled workers. It also offers support for disabled job seekers. - Annual increase of 6,500 in the number of places in employment through mediation. - Proposal for legislative procedures for equal treatment of disabled people (in the fields of selection, sport and access to buildings). | | - Within the basic vocational education system, experiments are already being initiated to take up as many disabled persons as possible into mainstream education and, to steer them towards the labour market. | PORTUGAL | - Increase in 25%, in the five years implementation of the plan, of the degree of employability of people with disability. - Creation of new instruments, such as teleservices centres for proximity support services, a job-exchange for telework or protected employment. - Creation of a system for employment guidance. - Strengthening of the functions of the technicians involved in the processes of employment integration. | - Enactment of a reintegration reward. | | - Approval of a calendar for the implementation of the different measures. - Economic compensations to adapt work sites, for the removal of architectural barriers and to be perceived on an individual basis. SPAIN | - Offer of a job or vocational training to 20,000 people with disabilities. - Establishment of 15 new mediation offices. - Offer of assistance and grants for placing 15,000 new contracts. - Encouragement of support and improving the tax situation, with regard to jobs and self-employment for the Special Employment Centres. - Improving of the co-operation with the ordinary employment centres. - Promotion of the setting of micro-enterprises by means of agreements with local authorities and Autonomous Communities. - Increase of compliance with the reserve quota for disabled workers both in enterprises and in the public sector. - Regulation of formulae for protected employment. - Adjustment of working conditions to suit people with disabilities. | - Offer of assistance to 5,000 people receiving invalidity benefits in order to reintegrate them to the labour market. | - Adaptation of the supply of vocational and continuous training to the needs and characteristics of this group. - Promotion of innovative experiences to ease the transition from school to working life. - The National Employment Institute will offer training courses to all disabled job seekers. | - Development of participation with the social partners in recruiting, supporting and promoting workers with disabilities. - Allocation of over PTA 23,000 million to the various measures included in the Plan. SWEDEN | - Establishment of legislative measures for the creation and keeping of work, such as benefits for technical aids to promote self-employment, and others for employers who hire people with disabilities. - Individual counselling in the seeking and keeping of a job for severely disabled persons. - Present a proposal to prohibit discrimination in employment against persons with disabilities. - The ombudsman for the disabled should oversee the observance of the new law, and plead cases in the Labour Court on behalf of an employee or a job seeker. | - Provisions regarding rehabilitation and work adaptation in the Occupational Safety and Health Act. | - Possibility to supplement basic education and get university education via labour market training for persons with disabilities. - Provision of experts and special resources to counsel people with disabilities, regarding training and employment in the framework of employability institutes. | UNITED KINGDOM | - The Access to Work program provides assistance such as help with additional costs in travelling to work, adaptations to premises, special equipment and the cost of providing support at work. - Extension of the New Deal to unemployed disabled job seekers. - Information campaign covering the measures to promote the employment for people with disabilities. | - Introduction of a Disabled Persons Tax Credit to replace the current Disability Working Allowance, for people with disabilities integrating the active population. With it they will be able to work and return to the benefit if the job does not last. | | - Allocation of a budget of 195m pounds to finance the New Deal and 185m pounds to finance the full range of Employment Service disability services. - Assessment programs to know the effect the measures for the employment of people with disabilities have had. - Establishment of a Task Force to undertake a wide review on how to implement civil rights for disabled people. - Establishment of a Disability Rights Commission. ---------- End of Document