Labour Market Participation of Persons with Disabilities - How can Europe Close the Disability Employment Gap?

The disability employment gap is one of many injustices facing disabled people in Europe. The evidence of its existence and its magnitude has been around for over 20 years and yet little progress appears to have been made. This is despite an unprecedented amount of policy activity during this time in individual countries and through the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the EU Disability Strategy and the European Pillar of Social Rights. Labour supply strategies have not closed the disability employment gap so there is an argument for new thinking on how to reduce, and eventually eliminate it. The chapter considers a range of policies designed to increase directly the number of disabled people employed in the mainstream and non-mainstream labour markets, such as quota schemes, wage subsidies, job creation programmes, sheltered/supported employment and an expansion of the social enterprise sector.