Members of the IZ KRUGA VOJVODINA participated in The Round Table about employing persons with disabilities, which took place in The Blue Room of the City Assembly of Novi Sad on October 31, 2023. It was organized in architecturally accessible premises and translated into sign language.
The round table assembled representatives of the organizations of persons with disabilities, civil organizations that deal with the problem of employing persons with disabilities, local government, the National Employment Office, and local media. Its goal was to introduce the results of an analysis of the situation in the employment area and to discuss the problems and recommendations for bettering local employment policies for persons with disabilities.
Mimica Zivadinović greeted those present and reminded them that the round table is an activity of the Center for Independent Living of Persons with Disabilities in Serbia on the project Tailored Approach to Work: Economic Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.
Next, Anita Govlja, an adviser in the Career Center in Novi Sad, presented the center’s activities accomplished in Novi Sad up to now, emphasized the interest persons with disabilities showed for the Carrier Centre’s services and that a large number of persons with disabilities received support and that workshops are in progress.
Katarina Stanic, a researcher in the Center for Social Policies and an associate of the Center for Independent Living Serbia, presented the analysis of the employment policies of persons with disabilities she made for the project. She emphasized the following significant problems, among others, in the field of employment of persons with disabilities.
- the medical model of assessment of workability and the insufficient focus on individual assessment of what a disabled person could do instead of assessing what they cannot do;
- the passivation of people with disabilities associated with social benefits, fueled by widespread prejudices that they will lose disability-related financial support if they get a job, which is incorrect;
- non-existence of adequate employment statistics for persons with disabilities since they are often employed under general conditions or work without registering an employment relationship.
The Center for Independent Living of Persons with Disabilities in Serbia organized the round table as part of the project Tailored Approach to Work: Economic Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and put in motion by the Youth with Disabilities Forum. Other partners on the project are Caritas Serbia, Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation, and Smart Collective.
