Israeli President Shimon Peres calls for equal employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
There are a myriad of worthy stories from this year’s United Nations’ International Day of Persons with Disabilities in addition to what was posted yesterday. While it isn’t possible to cover all of them, there were two major announcements from December 3 commemorations that initially slipped through the cracks of the time-cyberspace continuum that merit a followup post.
The first item comes from Israel, where The Jerusalem Post reporter Greer Fay Cashman reported that President Shimon Peres used the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities to sign a treaty that promises people with disabilities equal employment rights.
Peres made it a stately affair held in the President’s Residence, inviting many of the people who would benefit from the treaty to meet and mingle with representatives from government ministries and institutions for social welfare, as well as private industry groups, including the Chamber of Commerce, the Israel Manufacturers Association, and the Histadrut labor federation.
A film shown during the festivities focused on the abilities of four people who are succeeding in the workforce, including one woman who received praise from her employer at a food outlet:
Her employer said she realized a long time ago that the woman’s comprehension is far better than is generally estimated. She understands everything she is asked to do, in light of which she was given more difficult tasks and carried them out with ease.
Cashman credits Raanan Dinur as the driving force behind the treaty, who is the former Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office under Peres’s predecessor, Ehud Olmert. Dinur used his political influence to ensure government participation in the drafting of the treaty at a March 2010 forum attended by leaders of various government ministries. Once Dinur had their endorsement, he turned his attention to garnering support from the public and private sector, as well as other governmental entities.
Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman, for one, felt Israel was headed in the right direction:
Everyone has the basic right to work he said, adding he was pleased that all government ministries now employ people with disabilities and more people with disabilities are increasingly being integrated into all sectors of Israeli society.
The ability to operate a computer can mean a world of difference in the type of job opportunities available to a person, even in emerging countries like India, where our second story originates. A story in the daily newspaper, The Hindu, announced Microsoft India used the International Day of Persons with Disabilities as a platform to launch 40 templates that automatically convert documents commonly used by governments and businesses into files that are accessible to people with disabilities.
The conversions happen in real-time through an Accessibility Checker function installed into Microsoft’s Office product, which includes word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software, among other features.
The computer giant also pledged to provide training on the use of the accessible templates to government personnel on a quarterly basis, and the publishing guides containing information about available technology, which are then distributed to governmental organizations and businesses to facilitate hiring people with disabilities.
Meanwhile, job seekers will benefit from having 600 cyber-learning centers equipped with technology that enables people with disabilities to take the Microsoft Office Specialist certification exam, which can be used as a tool to gauge progress in their aptitude with the software or to demonstrate their proficiencies to prospective employers.
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Images by World Economic Forum (Simon Peres) and grampymoose (classroom), used under the Creative Commons License.