About the i-SME Project

The right for work is enshrined in Article 27 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Furthermore, ensuring an inclusive future of work is part of the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals. In recent years, all European Union countries have implemented measures to remove the barriers encountered in the job market by persons with disabilities. However, it is also far from being a reality for millions of people willing to work. At the EU level, only 47% of persons with disabilities aged 15 – 64 years are employed, compared to 67% of persons without disabilities.

Unlike large companies, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) employ less people with disabilities. They are often unaware of the capacity and abilities of people with disabilities in the workforce.
Reasons for being hesitant in the employment of persons with disabilities are in most cases the lack of good examples as well as a lack of transparent and easily accessible information about how to facilitate recruitment, organise training and workplace support and adapt the working environment. This lack of ‘knowing what is possible’ and ‘knowing what to do’ is also found in many studies focussing on SMEs and the recruitment of persons with a disability. Though, only under the condition that this information is brought in a way that ‘matches’ to the needs and expectations of the audience, being the SMEs.

Our goal is to increase the number of SMEs being aware of the possibilities of employing persons with disabilities and being also motivated to act and actually undertake actions to employ persons with disabilities. In the end, the impact will be having more i-SMEs in Europe! With our project we want to reach the decision-makers in small and medium-sized enterprises, motivate them to employ people with disabilities and support them with relevant information:

We want to reach out experts, service providers for people with disabilities, and representatives of the interests of those affected at local, regional, national and All-European levels, who will use our findings to promote the development of positive awareness among decision-makers in SME regarding the employment of people with disabilities, and provide support on this path. These social actors can benefit from our Action Guidelines when organising their events for business representatives:

• the ‘marketing’ responsible of a vocational service provider for persons with disability
• staff of a local employers’ organisation responsible for the employment of persons with disability
• staff of a private organisation developing local public campaigns on employment for persons with disability
• staff of a private organisation developing national public campaigns on employment for persons with disability
• staff of an umbrella organisation for SMEs
• staff of a national employers’ organisation responsible for the employment of persons with disability
• staff of a national union of employees
• staff of a national advocacy organisation responsible for the employment of persons with disability
• staff of a European advocacy organisation responsible for the employment of persons with disability
• staff in the European employer`s organisation responsible for the employment of persons with disability

We have identified a certain number of best practices in partner countries so that well-functioning structures in one country can be adopted by another where there is a need for action. In this way, we promote the mutual exchange of experience between countries. Our target group includes therefore politicians and their advisors.

• the civil servant of the municipality responsible for the employment of persons with disability
• the civil servant of the regional council responsible for the employment of persons with disability
• the civil servant of the national Ministry responsible for the employment of persons with disability
• the civil servant of the EU and responsible for the employment of persons with disability

We want to inform multiplicators about the results of our project so that they can disseminate them further:

• HR manager at the municipality
• Youth office
• Organisers of fairs