Alviar, Rhomalyn B. - BSA 3A
Research No.1- Eco Development
Reflection on Employment Opportunity
As far as I can tell, despite having access to a wide range of establishments while
growing up—including restaurants, bookstores, malls, cafes, schools, and many more—I
have never once noticed a person with a disability (PWD) employed there. Likewise, it is also
a rare occurrence for other people I know. In contrast, I frequently observe PWDs who are
either living at home with their families receiving support from them or who are begging on
the street for money. I also learned that most people only acknowledge PWD with overt
physical illnesses, dismissing invisible disabilities like mental illnesses. Indeed,
discrimination against them is still pervasive, so I shouldn't be surprised if businesses don't
recruit them frequently on the grounds that it's impracticable to employ someone whose
attendance and performance are uncertain. But do their enthusiasm, aspirations, and abilities
vanish as a result of their disabilities? It must have been difficult to be perceived as someone
who is always in need of assistance, to frequently be the target of sympathy, and to not be
given credit for some of one's own abilities. I think, no matter how big or small, there are
some things that only a specific individual can do. Therefore, I hope they will all be given the
opportunity they deserved to prove that they can make people feel more than just sympathy
for them.
PWDs encounter difficulties in finding employment in the Philippines. The
Philippines shows a low rate of PWDs participating in the workforce, according to the
Philippine Statistics Authority. Only 353,000, or less than one in five, of the 1.9 million
working-age Filipinos with disabilities were employed in January 2022. PWDs already have
a difficult time entering the workforce. The same holds true for PWDs who also hold college
degrees. Femylove Rivera, a 21-year-old applicant who was born with a club foot, has a
Bachelor of Business Administration degree. Despite having a degree, the previous
employers she applied to focused more on her distinctive features than her skills. 24-year-old
Jona Tonalgo has cerebral palsy, which limits her speech and ability to move her head. Her
teachers and family forced her to give up on furthering her education, which resulted in a
significant gap in her educational background in the job market. She claimed that after seeing
her, potential employers wouldn't even interview her. On the other hand, there are companies
that only recruit PWDs, like Hisbeans Café. Additionally, there is a Maxim delivery rider
