Idea behind Reasonable Accommodation as a Way Forward to Achieving Equality
Abstract
According to statistics of the International Labour Organization, an estimated 386 million of the world's working-age people have some kind of disability. Unemployment among persons with disabilities is as high as 80 percent in some countries. The question of reasonable accommodation rises as an important issue that needs to be considered when speaking about disability discrimination in the area of employment and occupation. The purpose of every reasonable accommodation, which is exclusively based on the social model of disability, is to provide disabled persons with access to employment, work and advancement in the work, as a way forward to achieving equality.
This paper elaborates on the question of the legal nature and the effect of reasonable accommodation, on what type of accommodation is appropriate and effective in legal terms. In addition this paper will look at the question of protection, i.e. who should be protected - the individual person or the group of persons with disabilities, the framework of the legal obligation to protect and its limits. Comparatively, the paper analyses the reasonable accommodation duty as provided in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation. Today, in different legal systems, there are various ways of regulating the reasonable accommodation. Namely, whether it should be considered as an anti-discrimination duty or as a form of an affirmative action? This question does not have a single answer and but will be elaborated in greater detail in the paper using comparative experience from the EU Member-States, USA, and Australia. Furthermore, the paper assesses the current situation on the reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities in the Macedonian context.
Finally, the paper identifies the key challenges and recommends actions for overcoming them. The text uses results from research and surveys that have been conducted in the country and abroad as an illustration of trends and patterns.
Keywords: discrimination, reasonable accommodation, undue burden, Macedonia.Downloads
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