A specialized position paper called for improving the infrastructure, especially in the private sector, to make it attractive and suitable for people with disabilities, as a step towards enhancing their integration into the labor market and their involvement in the development process.
The paper showed that the working environments in many private sector organizations are “unattractive” for people with disabilities, as there are many challenges and obstacles that prevent them from joining the labor market and enhancing their economic participation.
This came in a position paper issued by the Jordanian Labor Watch of the Phenix Center for Economic Studies on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which falls on December 3 of each year.
The paper explained that the employment rates of people with disabilities are still low, despite the fact that the relevant legislation obliges employers to employ them in specific percentages and ensure that they are not subject to discrimination due to their disability, in addition to Jordan's ratification of the most important international conventions related to this right, such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the International Labor Organization Convention No. 159 on vocational rehabilitation and employment of persons with disabilities.
The paper showed that the percentage of persons with disabilities amounted to 11.2 percent of the total population aged five years and above, of which only 24 percent of those aged 15 years and above are economically active (i.e., working or looking for work), which means that the vast majority of Jordanian adults with disabilities are not working.
The paper attributes this to the weakness of official monitoring and inspection mechanisms in enforcing the provisions of the Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Labor Law, by verifying the implementation of the percentage of persons with disabilities, in addition to the fact that many employers in the private sector do not prefer to hire persons with disabilities, as they believe they are not as productive and efficient as able-bodied workers.
In addition to their poor employment, many people with disabilities, especially those working in the private sector, continue to suffer from difficult and disability-unfriendly working conditions, often forcing them to withdraw from the labor market, according to the paper.
These challenges, according to the paper, include the low quality of the jobs they work in, the low levels of wages they receive, the lack of job security due to employers' lack of confidence in their capabilities, and their limited access to training programs.
The paper showed that the lack of infrastructure suitable for the work of persons with disabilities contributed to weakening their employment opportunities and/or increasing their suffering during their work, as many private sector establishments do not have infrastructure suitable for the nature of their disability, such as electric elevators and ramps for those with mobility disabilities, assistive devices for people with hearing, voice, speech, or language disorders, and work contracts and signage in Braille for those with visual impairments.
The paper also pointed to the weakness of the public transportation system, as there are no suitable means of transportation for people with disabilities, especially in governorates and peripheral areas, noting that these infrastructural obstacles are most prevalent in the textile sector.
According to the paper, many people with disabilities are unaware of their rights stipulated in legislation, which constitutes a loophole that many employers may exploit in order to deny them, due to the weak role of governmental and non-governmental organizations concerned with raising awareness of their rights.
As for women with disabilities, the paper noted that they suffer from double challenges in the field of employment compared to men, represented by the existence of great difficulties that do not enable them to obtain suitable job opportunities, such as preventing them from applying for jobs for fear of harassment, violence and discrimination in the work environment.
The paper warned that there is a failure to encourage entrepreneurship among women with disabilities to work on projects and productive kitchens that generate income and make them economically empowered, which requires the adoption of economic policies that view women's economic participation in a developmental, holistic and sustainable manner.
The paper recommended the need to develop official monitoring and inspection mechanisms to ensure the enforcement of Article 25(e) of the Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Article 13 of the Jordanian Labor Law.
It also recommended improving the infrastructure, especially in private sector establishments, to make them attractive and suitable for persons with disabilities, by giving them incentives to do so, such as exempting them from some tax fees, in addition to developing the public transportation system in Jordan to make it suitable for persons with disabilities, including all governorates and peripheral areas.