Open the world of work to all disabilities, visible and invisible

Eighty percent of people with disabilities do not identify themselves with a wheelchair or a white cane. Affected by an invisible pathology, they are nevertheless confronted with tangible difficulties, whether they suffer from chronic illnesses (asthma, cancer, diabetes, endometriosis, etc.), mental disorders (depression, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorders, etc.), cognitive disorders (dyslexia, dyspraxia, etc.), sensory disabilities (deafness, etc.), or even certain motor disabilities.

If for people with visible disabilities, the paths to employment are tortuous, even obstructed, people with invisible disabilities suffer a form of double punishment. Those who choose not to reveal their condition to their colleagues and their employer often have to manage, in addition to their health problems, suspicion, incomprehension, fear, misunderstandings, rejection, or even exclusion for incapacity. By choosing to “take it upon themselves”, to “look good”, these people who struggle daily to compensate for their handicap can even end up collapsing.

Whether disabilities are invisible or visible, getting a job in France is an obstacle course. Although the 1987 law imposes a quota of 6% of disabled employees in companies, the private sector laboriously reaches 3.9% (in 2019). And the public sector totals 5.6% (in 2020). During Emmanuel Macron’s five-year term, “Thanks to government mobilization, many measures have been taken. We worked on the employability of the person and the accompaniment of the collective work of the employers to pass from the obligation to the desire », summarizes Sophie Cluzel, Secretary of State to the Prime Minister responsible for people with disabilities, who replied to us on February 22.

Among the measures that have emerged, the reform of the employment obligation for workers with disabilities came into force in 2020. In particular, it enjoined recruiters to favor direct employment rather than resorting to subcontracting. -contracting; it also granted definitive rights in the event of irreversible disability and made the appointment of a disability referent mandatory for any company with more than 250 people. For its part, Cap emploi, which supports people with disabilities and their employers, is continuing its rapprochement with Pôle emploi.

Support leaders

Another tool deployed, aid of 4,000 euros per recruitment of people with disabilities has made it possible to “29,000 hires, two-thirds of them on permanent contracts”, according to Sophie Cluzel. Apprenticeship contracts jumped by almost 80% between 2019 and 2021 and now number 8,159. Finally, 90 platforms labeled “Accompanied employment” supported 6,000 people and their employers free of charge in 2021. “ As for adapted companies and ESATs [établissements et services d’aide par le travail], various measures are at work or in the process of being deployed to smooth the trajectories between professional environments for the general public, protected and adapted”, continues the Secretary of State.

The State has also signed an agreement with Agefiph (Association managing the fund for the integration of people with disabilities) for the period 2021-2024. “Our compass is to change the employment rate of people with disabilities, to be as close as possible to them and to companies. We support managers in the recruitment and retention of their employees, in particular through prevention, compensation and the development of workstations », explains its president, Christophe Roth. Well aware of the magnitude of the task ahead, he adds: “We are working to ensure that the multiple players in the ecosystem work together. »

Has the past five-year period lived up to the ambitions displayed in 2017? “Multiple measures have been taken, it is undeniable, but they do not constitute a systemic reform. More generally, it is the whole organization of work and the management methods around the person that must be rethought, because they are excluding and the incapacity rate is exploding”, analyzes Carole Salères, national adviser for employment, work, training and resources at the APF France Handicap association. In the field, for the past five years, disability has been the primary reason for referral to the Defender of Rights, and employment the primary area in which this discrimination takes place. The unemployment rate for people with disabilities has certainly fallen from 19% in 2017 to 14% in 2020, but it remains higher than that of “all publics” (9% against 8%). The long-term unemployment rate also remains problematic.

“There is a gap between political will and access to rights for people on the ground,” believes Arnaud de Broca, president of the Collectif handicaps, which calls for, for example, “the principle of universal accessibility is included in the Constitution”. For the next five-year period, the work on disability – visible or invisible – and employment promises to be considerable.