Disabled people face an uphill climb (often literally) to employment in most countries, but one Middle Eastern country just took one more step towards workplace disability inclusion.
Where in the world? Qatar has been in the news a lot over the past week, as President Trump visited the country just days after it gave him a luxury jet. But before all the presidential fanfare, Qatar had a different type of milestone: its first career fair for disabled people. The May 10 event was hosted by Life Skills Hub, an organization that provides a range of services to disabled children, with support from the US Embassy in Qatar and Qatari Ministry of Labor, the Peninsula (Qatar) reported.
The day featured panels on how organizations in Qatar can support disabled workers, employers, and many job seekers. Some US-based organizations participated as well, including Hilton Hotels and the Minnesota Center for People with Disabilities.
Roughly eight in 10 Qataris with disabilities are out of work, and experience discrimination on the job and misunderstanding from non-disabled peers.
“We want to make sure this [unemployment] number shrinks every year, and we hope this career fair will be part of the solution,” Nihal Al Saleh, CEO of Life Skills Hub, told the Peninsula. “As an organization, we have the ability to host events like this to fight stigma and ensure people with disabilities are included.”
In 2004, Qatar’s People with Special Needs law went into effect, and the country continues its work towards a more inclusive society for disabled people. Companies with more than 25 employees are required to have disabled people account for at least 21% of their organization, and must treat disabled workers equally.
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Satellite view. Globally, disabled people still face uneven barriers to the workplace, because of persistent stereotypes and assumptions about their abilities. A 2024 global study from Deloitte found that disabled people often face discrimination at work that goes undetected and employers frequently deny accommodations requests, HR Brew previously reported.
While disabled people in the US experienced huge employment gains during Covid-19, thanks in large part to the availability of remote work, signs of regression are already apparent.
In April, 8.2% of disabled people were unemployed, up from 6.3% just one year ago; more than double the unemployment rate of non-disabled workers (3.6%). Some disability advocates (and the ACLU) have expressed fear that as the Trump administration threatens companies that maintain DEI programming and DEI initiatives are rolled back, the community could lose much of the progress it has made in the last three decades.
“Employers need to build intentional, accessible, and clear career pathways for disabled employees,” Keely Cat-Wells, founder and CEO of Making Space, a disability-focused talent acquisition platform, previously told HR Brew.
“There is a significant shortage of visible disabled role models in senior leadership positions across many sectors and this lack of representation affects the aspirations of disabled people and perpetuates a cycle where leadership paths seem inaccessible to those who are disabled.”