Webinar: Towards creating a disability-inclusive job market

Why we need to upskill women workers in Bangladesh’s apparel sector
22 November 2021
Ending poverty for people with disabilities: What will it take?
3 December 2021


BRAC Health, Nutrition and Population Programme (HNPP) organised a webinar ‘Towards creating a disability inclusive job market’ was organised on Tuesday, 30 November 2021, commemorating The International Day of People with Disabilities, celebrated globally on 3 December.

BRAC led the conversation on the need for wider partnerships and multi-sector interventions to drive disability inclusion in  workplaces. Experts from the Government of Bangladesh, CRP and ADD International joined the conversation.

We were honoured to have with us in the panel: Asif Saleh, Executive Director, BRAC; Shafiqul Islam, Country Director, ADD International; Dr. Morseda Chowdhury, Director, HNPP, BRAC; Valerie Taylor, Founder, CRP; Maria Huq, Director, Human Resources Department, BRAC; and Honourable Director General of Department of Social Services, Sheikh Rafiqul Islam as Special Guest, and Honourable Secretary of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Mahfuza Akhter as Chief Guest.

Key insights from our respected guests are as follows:

  1. Persons with disabilities can make workplaces more productive if they are equipped with both soft skills and hard skills that complement relevant professions
  2. Creating access points for persons with disabilities in the job market through inclusive skills training
  3. Changing mindsets around persons with disabilities that will break harmful stereotypes and social barriers that prevent people to realise their potential
  4. Taking learnings from persons with disabilities who have had successful careers and spreading awareness through multi-sectoral interventions is key to ensuring a disability inclusive society
  5. Assessing demands in the current job market to curate skills for persons with disabilities will drastically increase the number of disabled people in the job market
  6. Organising job fairs specifically for persons with disabilities will encourage more disabled people to enter the job market and motivate organisations to hire from this untapped resource market while ensuring inclusion in workplaces
  7. It is important to show empathy and not sympathy towards persons with disabilities in the workplace, and it is the responsibility of recruiters to have a deeper understanding of different disabilities and the unique needs in order to build an enabling environment where  everyone can work to their fullest potential
  8. Wider multi-sectoral collaborations and partnerships that share the same commitment towards disability inclusion
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