LÈD: Il Lavoro È un Diritto. Nuove soluzioni all’auto-orientamento al lavoro e per il recruiting online delle persone con disabilità

INTRODUCTION: This research project is an Eureka PhD, developed thanks to the contribution of the Marche Region, Macerata University and Jobmetoo by Jobdisabili srl, an online job agency focus on people with disabilities. If finding a job is currently difficult for many people, for graduates with disability it actually is a path with many obstacles. Despite the Law 68 has an advanced overview, last year Italy was taken by the European Court for not meeting its obligations in relation to the placement of workers with disabilities. Among those who have a disability, unemployment is between 50% and 70% in industrialized countries, with peaks of 80% in Italy. The basic concepts of the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 aim to support programs against discrimination, and adopts equal opportunities and active inclusion as priorities. Within this context, orientation and job placement are taking an increasingly important role: lifelong guidance is recognized as a permanent right for every person, which is applied in different forms and methods and specifically depending on needs, contexts and situations. The centrality of the guidance process is the recognition of the self-determination of the human being, which must be supported in finding the maximum chance of self-realization.Nowadays the conceptual framework of reference in the field of disability is the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), which has led to a real reversal of the meaning of disability: no longer as a mere consequence of a physical or a cognitive condition, but the relationship between an individual and the context in which he/she lives. In terms of life project, the challenge for a person with disabilities is related to create the condition for experiencing as an active actor of his/her own life, deciding and acting in a self-determination logic. OBJECTIVE: Based on the theories background analyzed and the business’ needs, the following research question has been elaborated: awareness of own abilities, skills, resources as well as the weakness due to the specific type of disability can be gained in students and graduates with disabilities who are approaching the world of work? The aim of the research is to present an online tool to support self-reflection processes on personal identity. The final result is supposed to be the recognition of the career project closer to their personal and professional profile. Self-reflection will facilitate the next dialogical contact with counsellors and will be a competence that the individual will bring as a value in the world of work. METHOD AND ACTIVITIES: The theoretical and methodological paradigm adopted is a constructive approach: each component of the research can be reconsidered during its course and so the process is characterized by circularity; the research’s tools are in connection with the specific goals. The first step of the project has been the collection of existing data through bibliographic research. To collect data about career and work related needs of graduates with disabilities a questionnaire has been created, collaborating with other Universities of Italy. Subsequently, based on the questionnaire’s data, the literature and existing tools in guidance’s field, an online path has been developed to carry on self-evaluation by the students with disabilities on their own knowledge, hard and soft skills, conditions related to disabilities’needs, intelligence profile, strengths and weaknesses. In the last phase of the research a pilot study has been structured to test the self-orientation path, collecting qualitative data with specific instruments and related to different targest. CONCLUSION: The pilot study, even if it presents some methodological limits, have highlighted that the self-guidance path activates a reflection on self-view in the different contexts and a positive or negative change in the self-esteem and self-assessment in different areas (ex: relationships, bodily experience, emotionality etec.). Strenghts and weaknesses of the path were pointed out to improve and adapt it. The platform value is related to the active role played by the person with disabilities in the orientation process followed by a subsequent dialogue with a counsellor. In this way guidance process assumes a permanent value acting within the proximal development area of the person towards the personal and professional identity’s realization.