Reflexiones sobre los Retos y Oportunidades para la Inclusión Educativa y Laboral de Personas con Discapacidad. Una Visión Latinoamericana.

The International Labor Organization estimated a loss of almost 40% of the income of people with disabilities (PWD) and many have been separated from the workplace due to the economic crisis in the first months of the pandemic. However, with the relative stability and reopening of economic activity post-pandemic, labor markets for PWD were restructured. The objective of this chapter was to reflect on the challenges and employment opportunities faced by PWD in three urban areas of Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico in a post-COVID 19 environment, from the perspective of their university communities. The particular objectives were: a) to analyze the level of knowledge they have regarding the institutions, organizations, laws and regulations that support PWD in the workplace, and how they found out about this information; b) integrate information about the support programs for these people at the university or workplace, as well as their opinion about their performance; c) discern the complexity in the processes to integrate them into studying or working, the follow-up they provide; d) dimension the obstacles and areas of opportunity for them to obtain a job and in what potential areas they could work. This was a study with an exploratory approach, descriptive scope and cross-sectional design. Primary information was obtained from 5,253 participants, from Bogotá-Colombia, 84 people from a private university (82% students, 18% collaborators, both teachers and administrators); from Cuenca, Ecuador 229 people also from a private university (63.3% students, 24.5% teachers and 12.2% administrative staff) and in Puebla, Mexico from two universities (n=4,940), one public and one private (95.2% and 4.8% ). A semi-structured survey of 14-15 items was administered, which included multiple choice responses and others with a Likert scale. Using convenience sampling, the survey was administered in 2022 on the Google forms® platform.