The National Health Survey (PNS), released in August this year by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), showed that 17.3 million Brazilians aged two years or more had a disability in 2019. The number is equivalent to 8, 4% of the population in this age group.
According to the IBGE, only 28.3% of people with disabilities and working age (14 years or more) were in the workforce at that time. Among people without disabilities, the percentage was higher, 66.3%.
The workforce is the concept that brings together both employed (or occupied) and unemployed (or unoccupied, who continue in search of new vacancies) professionals.
For the psychologist Flavio Vaz de Oliveira, founder of the Buscotherapy platform, the feeling of exclusion can cause problems for the mental health of people with disabilities.
“The feeling of not belonging facilitates the increase of stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms”, observes Flavio.
In addition to their lower participation in the labor market, one of the forms of exclusion for people with disabilities is the lack of accessibility in cities, both in public and private places.
“The reality is that our cities are poorly maintained, potholed streets, broken sidewalks. For a person who does not have a disability, it is already a challenge to be able to walk calmly without having to look at the ground and not tripping. Think, then, of the difficulty of a person with reduced mobility. The lack of accessibility affects the quality of life of these people. Imagine a visually impaired person or a wheelchair user dodging holes in the sidewalk to walk, it’s an almost impossible mission”, he says.
Accessibility goes beyond just having access ramps or preferential boxes. It has to be carried out even in the form of assistance to people with disabilities. This is the work of Inclue, a startup founded by two people with disabilities, Sonny Pólito and Rodrigo Piris. Due to bad consumer experiences in retail, they decided to launch a training tool and an application for the PCD public (people with disabilities) and also people over 60, who may have reduced mobility.
“Accessibility is a right of all citizens. And the brands are not prepared to serve people with disabilities and the elderly and still do not offer them a good shopping experience. This causes them to have many obstacles to consume and little access to retail,” says Pólito.
“The service helps people with disabilities, for example, to pick up the products they need, go to the checkout, and accompany them to the car”, emphasizes Piris.
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