The number of workers with disabilities has increased by 15% in a year, according to figures from human resources services company Acerta. “Employers are integrating more and more people with disabilities into the workplace, and it can be done with small efforts,” said Georgia Venetakis of Acerta.
One in 369 workers in the regular labour market has a mental or physical disability. This is a significant increase from previous years. “We’ve come a long way,” says Georgia Venetakis of Acerta. “There are definitely still steps to be taken, but it’s nice that this evolution is under way.”
Venetakis herself has a visual impairment and guides companies on recruitment. “Employers are integrating more and more people with disabilities into the workplace,” she says. “If we as a society want to achieve an 80% employment rate, we will not be able to exclude anyone. So companies simply can no longer afford to leave talent unused.”
A disability need not prevent smooth integration in the workplace, she adds. “In some sectors the challenges are of course greater, but often people with disabilities drop out during the application process because there is a lot of ignorance.”
Simple interventions
In most cases, she explains, it’s a matter of asking what a person needs to be able to fill a position. “Employers can, with some simple interventions, allow people with physical disabilities to perform the same tasks as people without disabilities. There are several support mechanisms that companies can call on when hiring someone with a disability.”
Walloon and Brussels companies employ significantly more people with disabilities in percentage terms than Flemish companies. In Flanders, 0.20% of employees have a disability, an increase of almost 9% compared to last year.
In Wallonia, the figure is 0.38%, though that is a decrease of about 3% compared to 2022. Brussels companies have seen a striking increase in the past year, up 46% to 0.51%.
There are several support mechanisms that companies can call on when hiring someone with a disability
SMEs with up to 100 employees are more likely to employ more people with disabilities, with the highest proportion – 0.6% - among companies with 50 to 100 employees. Companies with 100 employees or more score significantly worse, with the lowest proportion – 0.11% - among companies with 500 to 1,000 employees.
“In smaller organisations, there is a little more personal interaction with and among employees, which benefits personal support for people with disabilities,” Venetakis says. “Maybe the functions there are not always so tightly defined, and roles can be divided differently a little more easily if needed.”