THE SPECIAL EMPLOYMENT CENTERS, ARE THEY AN INTEGRATION TOOL FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES?

Abstract

As we know, people with disabilities are at risk of falling into poverty, so access to work will be a way
to ensure that, as stated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,
they can fully enjoy all the fundamental rights and freedoms. In this text, disability is also shown as
an evolving concept that depends on the integration of people and the attitudinal and environmental
barriers that hinder their full and effective participation in society. Integration in the labor market is
totally necessary to achieve the rights of people with disabilities and being a complex matter; in which
various actors will come together and which can be analyzed from different perspectives. But
integration will also require the existence of work environments in which people with disabilities can
develop their potential. The special employment centers (CEE) in Spain are considered as entities of
the social economy, which have achieved the labor insertion of people with disabilities. It is necessary
to influence the large volume of employment generated, having opted for the employment of people
with special employability difficulties, even contributing to job stability even in times marked by
economic difficulties. But that does not mean that they really guarantee the integration at a social,
labor, etc. level of people with disabilities. Special employment centers must respond to a double
objective. On the one hand, they offer products and services in a free and open market, and therefore
must be commercially successful. On the other, we must not forget that its main mission is social: to
offer opportunities, develop and improve the employability of people with disabilities.