Employment opportunities for people with disabilities are limited by stigma, discrimination, and physical workplace barriers. The consequence is a persistent employment gap between people with disabilities and people without. So, while most of the 1.3 billion people with disabilities1 around the world are of working age, only 30 per cent participate in the labour force.2
Exclusion can bring economic, physical, and emotional hardship to individuals and their families. Moreover, it diminishes prospects for economic growth: the cost of excluding people with disabilities represents up to 7 per cent of GDP in some countries.