The unemployment rate among disabled people in Latin America is “disturbing” said Ana Mohedano, who is responsible for the Social Services’ Program of the Latin American Organization of Social Security (OISS).

During a conference developed in Montevideo (Uruguay) where experts from 16 Latin American countries shared experiences about the challenge of employment access for disabled people, Mohedano said that there are regions in Latin America where unemployment “reaches up to 80%” among disabled people.

“These are truly disturbing figures, particularly when considering that employment does not only provide an economic retribution. If a disabled person does not work, he/she does not have access to the healthcare system, to pensions or social services…” explained the specialist.

Even she mentioned that percentage of unemployment in certain regions, she made it clear that “there is no solid data in Latin America of employment among disabled people”.

“There are regions where we do not even know how many disabled persons are. That is quite serious. If we want to develop strong policies to promote employment among these people and we do not know how many they are, nor where they are or what problems they have, then how can we design such policies?” she added.

Despite the gloomy scenery, Mohedano pointed out that certain advances are being made.

“The situation is very different in each sub region.  Truth be told, the Southern Cone is making huge advances, developing very interesting projects which can be compared to projects developed in European countries or the United States.  However, other regions such as Central America have a lot of work ahead.”

As regards the measures to be implemented in the region to improve the situation, there are initiatives such as saving percentages of public jobs for disabled people, reimburse social security contributions to companies that hire this group of the population, as well as tax incentives or providing priority in public requests for bids.

Even though it is a good thing that the issue is being discussed and people are willing to work on it, one of the major obstacles is the lack of real implementation of these measures.

Wederson Santos one of the general coordinators of the National Secretary of Disabled People in Brazil –a body that depends on the Ministry of Human Rights-, explained that the country has a Quota Law for private companies since 1991, but only 39% of these firms comply.

This situation of lack of compliance also occurs in Mexico, where 3% of jobs in public federal administration entities and bodies must be saved for disabled people.

Ignacio Rubí , the sub secretariat of Social Security of the Mexican Secretariat of Labour, explained that the government aims to change the situation and highlighted that significant advances have been made, for instance the growth of the percentage of disabled women who get a job.

Source: Mercado de Dinero