Web4All 2025

Accessible Employment

This year, W4A’s theme is “Accessible Employment”, aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8, which aims to “promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”.

The Web is a platform where people seek and apply for employment and participate in the gig economy, grow their professional networks and share their achievements and credentials. However, across the globe there is persistent disparity between the employment rates of applicants who do not have a lived experience of disability compared with those who do, a gap that is compounded in the presence of intersectional diversity.

This year, the Web4All conference seeks to explore the barriers to participation in the employment market for those with a lived experience of disability and what work is being undertaken to reduce these barriers. Are digital employability tools and platforms meeting the needs of all potential employees and employers or are excellent candidates being stopped at the point of application? Are interview and onboarding process in a digital age providing flexibility to those with diverse needs, or are monolithic recruitment practices of old being encoded into contemporary digital platforms? Are these employment outcomes gaps even addressed through technological solutions, or do they start in policy settings, training and intentional and respectful approaches to recruitment in the digital age?

This theme also opens consideration of the relationship between employment outcomes and educational participation and completion rates, given the continuing global variability in the educational participation and attainment rates of individuals with lived experience of disability compared to their non-disabled peers. Despite advances in technologies and increased opportunities for students to study flexibly including fully online, there has been very little improvement in either the participation or completion rates of vocational and higher education students with disabilities.

Are digital employability tools and platforms meeting the needs of all potential employees and employers or are excellent candidates being stopped at the point of application? Are interview and onboarding process in a digital age providing flexibility to those with diverse needs, or are monolithic recruitment practices of old being encoded into contemporary digital platforms? Are these employment outcomes gaps even addressed through technological solutions, or do they start in policy settings, training and intentional and respectful approaches to recruitment in the digital age?

How can schools and tertiary institutions support improved employment outcomes utilising new and emerging technologies in ways that make educational access and success more attainable for people with lived experience of disabilities? Are they adequately preparing their students to utilise these technologies to enhance graduate attributes and employment prospects in roles that require more advanced skills in digital literacy and where there are increasing opportunities for people with lived experience of disability to be employed in the gig economy? Are there other sectors that need to contribute to improved employment outcomes for people with lived experience of disability through the innovative use of technologies?