Employment Opportunities and Challenges of People with Disabilities in Dire-Dawa, Ethiopia: Policy and Practice

Abstract

Disability is not a new phenomenon for human world that can/could face at some point of life. People with disability are stigmatized, discriminated in their day to day life through human made or nature. This study was focused on good opportunity with employment of people with disability and its challenges, existing policies, practice of employment of people with disability and its gap between actual and planned policy. To achieve objective of the study 50 respondents (governmental, Non-governmental organization human resource officers, employed with disabilities, experts who are working on the issues) were involved using purposive sampling method. Finding of the study reveals that presence and incorporating international conventions, national proclamation, and national action plan in employment policy of people with disability are a good employment opportunity. Although, existence international convention and proclamations, national plan, standards were not guaranteed to equal space in labour market to all individuals. The physical infrastructure of employer organization, misunderstanding about the capacity persons with disabled, lack of awareness of employers, lack of legal liabilities of employers were challenges to employability of people with disability in city administration. Besides of this, result disclose plan and actual practice of employed people with disability in different sectors were unrealized and insufficiently as it planned in national and international proclamation. The study conclude that Employment policies on persons with disability were also found to have very minimal impact in terms of improving the employment rate of persons with disability in labour market and in alleviating the exiting challenges.