Leading firms must champion disability inclusion to shift social perception: ILO expert

Jürgen Menze, disability inclusion specialist at the ILO Global Business and Disability Network, has urged leading companies to open up more employment opportunities for persons with disabilities, saying their example could encourage wider industry participation and help transform social attitudes.

"If these leading industries and leading companies can showcase that persons with disabilities are an asset to their company, then it will not only incentivise other companies to follow, but also change the social perception of persons with disabilities," he said.

Menze visited Dhaka on the occasion of BRAC Bank's 2nd "EmpowerAbility 2025" conference on 11 November. During an interview with this correspondent of The Business Standard at a hotel in the capital, he emphasised the importance of easing access to employment for persons with disabilities, creating enabling legal frameworks, and ensuring their effective implementation.

Mentioning that this is not the responsibility of any single person, institution, or government, Menze said it is a shared responsibility. If the government and the private sector each play their part, the process will become much easier, he added.

However, the ILO expert also reminded that the government must take responsibility in certain areas.

"The government's role, for example, is looking at legislation to see if it still works — including being a role model themselves in the public sector," he said.

Menze added that working with organisations of persons with disabilities is essential to hold the government accountable for its commitments, adding, "This is a human issue. It's not charity."

He said, "One idea, of course, could be to check that the Bangladesh government has never ratified ILO Convention 159 from 1983, which is on employment and vocational rehabilitation of persons with disabilities – the only international agreement where employers, workers (trade unions), and the government come together to discuss these issues."

However, he noted that Bangladesh's recent ratification of ILO Convention 190 may still help strengthen protection for persons with disabilities.

He emphasised the importance of bringing disability rights issues into labour laws and other national frameworks, and ensuring they are discussed on mainstream platforms.

"The discussion of whether labour law needs to be explicit – yes, because if you're not explicit, it's very easy to forget about certain social groups, including people who are minorities," he said. "We need to come out of a niche discussion. We must talk about persons with disabilities, but always place the issue in a broader perspective."

In response to a question, Menze noted, "It's always tricky to rank countries on any issue because one of the key challenges here is data. And data on disability can be quite tricky, depending on how you define disability. We have seen countries reporting that 20-25% of their population has a disability, while others report only 2-3%."

He also highlighted the focus on skills when bringing persons with disabilities into the labour market. "One of the challenges we see worldwide, including in Bangladesh, is that employers – both in the private and public sectors – say: 'Look, we are committed, but we might not be able to find persons with disabilities with the right skills.'"