For Disabled Workers, a Tight Labor Market Opens New Doors

Sightsavers is an international organization that focuses on the prevention of avoidable blindness and the promotion of equality for people with visual impairments and other disabilities in the workforce through its Inclusion Works project. Since its inception in 2020, Sightsavers has helped more than 200 individuals with visual impairments transition into new employment.

The Peniel Foundation virtually connects people with disabilities with mentors to help them learn to achieve their goals, level up their career skills to access to better jobs and become financially independent. Since forming, the foundation has seen thousands join the program and go on to have great success in their careers and personal lives.

Disabled farmers in Kashmir are adapting agricultural practices through locally-fabricated tool modifications, adjusted work timing, and traditional soil/seed management techniques that reduce physical labor by 15-50% and enable them to continue farming despite increasing climate stress.

Lionheart Ability Leaders International Foundation (LALIF) uses a comprehensive training program to empower parents, teachers and those living with vision and hearing impairment. Their programming teaches educators how to understand tactile sign language, and also empowers parents on how best to support their children living with disabilities.

The mental health profession can lead to intense burnout, specifically for mental health professionals of color. Some facilities are launching efforts like the Stay Well program to address burnout including promoting cultural competency among all professionals, recruiting and training more practitioners of color, limiting the hours worked per week, emphasizing self-care and providing virtual work options and vacation days.

Inclusive Farm is adapted for people with a wide range of physical needs, like for people who are blind, to give farming students the full range of skills expected on a farm. Inclusive Farm aims to break down barriers for disabled people in the farming industry and is currently ushering its first intake of 14 students toward completing their courses.

Even as several states banned subminimum wages for disabled workers and adopted versions of the "employment-first" legislation in the country, the Center for Human Services became an anomaly when it closed its sheltered workshop programs in Missouri where they find immense support. In the last five years, the non-profit has focused, instead, on helping adults with disabilities gain employment in traditional jobs in their own communities and earn minimal wages.

The Inclusive Friends Association, in partnership with SIMBED Learners School and Nigeria's National Information Technology Development Agency, implemented a targeted digital literacy program that trained 20 women and girls with disabilities across Abuja. The two-day workshop taught participants essential digital skills including content creation, social media management, Google tools, online safety, and advocacy techniques to show them how to create content and potentially generate an income online.

TV Bra is a Norwegian news station where all reporters are autistic or have learning disabilities that produces a weekly one-hour news cast tailored to its audience. TV Bra helps ensure news is accessible to everyone, helping people who are historically excluded from journalism stay up-to-date, and has significant viewership, with upwards of 5,000 people tuning in each week.

Floare de Cires addresses the employment barriers people with disabilities face by training them in culinary and hospitality skills that help them integrate into the workforce and build a sense of independence.