Hanoi (VNA) –Delegates from APEC member economies gathered at a symposium in Hanoi on May 10to seek ways to promote the employment of persons with disabilities in the region.

Co-hosted by the APEC Group of Friends on Disability Issues (GOFD) and the Human Resources Development Working Group(HRDWG), the symposium formed part of the second APEC Senior Officials Meeting (SOM 2)and related meetings.

According to an exploratory study by the InternationalLabour Organisation (ILO) of the macroeconomic costs of excluding people withdisabilities from the world of work, economic losses related to disability arelarge and measurable, ranging between 3-7 percent of GDP.

Meanwhile, the UNESCAP Disability at aGlance 2015 Report, showed that the region’s totalworkforce has already begun to decline in many parts of Asia and the Pacificdue to population ageing. This trend, which willlikely continue over the next decades, increases the need for governments torecognize the role that people with disabilities canplay in boosting GDP growth by filling labour shortages.

You Liang, arepresentative of GOFD, quoted the report as saying that in the Asia-Pacificregion, it is estimated that about one in six persons, or up to 650 million,experience some forms of disability.

In particular, people with disabilities in theAsia-Pacific region are less likely to be employed, and when they are employed,they are more likely to be engaged in vulnerable forms of employment.

Teresa Cannady, of the US-APECTechnical Assistance to Advance Regional Integration (US-ATAATI), toldparticipants that economies could increase their GDP by 1-7 percent if personswith disabilities were paid on an equal basis. The participation of personswith disabilities in the Asia-Pacific region can minimise expected labourshortages in the coming years, she added.

At the symposium, delegates pointed out a range of employment-relatedbarriers facing persons with disabilities such as the lack of data on thedisabled and their employment, incomplete legal protections andenforcement, inaccessibleand segregated training and education systems, poor access to professional networks, stigmaand biases,inaccessible transportation and inaccessible workplaces, and lackof support to assist injured and ill workers toreturn to work.

They held that it is necessary to provide better legal protection forpersons with disabilities, increase awareness-raising to overcome stereotypes,myths, and prejudices about persons with disabilities in the workplace, address the gendered aspects of employment and work with private and public employers to encourage the hiring and retention of persons with disabilities.

The panelsstressed the need to improve inclusive education systems for children withdisabilities in anticipation of their future workplace needs, provide better job placement services, effectivelycommunicate the availability of those services to persons with disabilities, ensure that persons with disabilities are paid thesame wages as their peers without disabilities, and increase funding for peoplewith disabilities to start their own business.

The participantsalso recommended making transportation accessible and affordable for persons with disabilities,  increasing public awareness activities to address culturalbarriers and attitudes about persons witꦉh disabilities, especially concerningtheir employment capabilities, increasing the engagement with privatesector, developing employment skillstraining opportunities in rural areas for persons with disabilities and engaging persons with disabilities in thedevelopment of disability policies and programmes, among others.-VNA