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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.

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End of Document

