Striving to remove barriers that prevent us from building Vibrant, Diverse, Inclusive, Accessible Communities!
Abdulla Al Humaidan argues that, for decades, disability inclusion has been framed as charity, compliance or corporate social responsibility, and that this framing keeps People with Disabilities stuck with “pilot programmes that never scale”, roles that “lack advancement”, and initiatives that “quietly disappear once the grant cycle ends”. He rejects symbolic participation that depends on temporary funding or branding cycles, warning that inclusion treated as a “moral gesture rather than an operational strategy” rarely survives market realities. The article’s first demand is structural: stop treating People with Disabilities as an add-on, and start treating barrier removal as something built into how work is designed and sustained.
The article pairs that critique with an employment crisis that is both urgent and manufactured: employers face “persistent talent shortages” and “rising turnover”, while the global average of unemployed or underemployed adults with Disabilities is often estimated at 80 to 90 per cent. Al Humaidan argues that this is not about lack of ability—he lists strengths like “sustained focus”, “heightened pattern recognition”, and “high attention to detail”—but about exclusionary gatekeeping that blocks access to jobs. He names the barrier directly: the hiring process often demands “savvy social skills”, which “obstructs the pathway to employment” even when roles demand the precision, focus, and consistency many candidates already bring.
As a proof point, Al Humaidan highlights Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Authority for People of Determination and its Bee brand of enterprises, launched in 2019, which he says created “sustainable, skill-based employment” by matching jobs to an individual’s “inherent abilities” and then teaching the technical skills needed to deliver “productivity results”. He describes Bee teams doing advanced, precision-oriented work such as 3D machining and robotics, alongside businesses including coffee, textiles, flowers, upscale chocolates and cheese—evidence for his claim that inclusion can be a productivity engine, not a side project. He underscores measurable outcomes reported by employers—higher retention, lower error rates, and productivity gains of 30 to 50 per cent—arguing that properly designed roles turn inclusion into operational reliability rather than a disappearing initiative.
Al Humaidan warns that many initiatives fail because they are not built around the long-term financial strategy of the organisation: employers are asked to remove barriers without being shown how that translates into value, training is “not individualised”, and roles are not considered strategically. He lays out a replicable five-step operational strategy—analyse Human Resources (HR) pain points, evaluate the inherent abilities required in hard-to-fill roles, match candidates to those abilities, provide skills-based training, and track Return on Investment (ROI)—and says it can be applied across industries and geographies, including fragile or post-conflict regions where employment pathways support economic stability and social cohesion. His rights-first bottom line is that dignity is delivered through meaningful work, fair compensation, advancement opportunities and economic contribution; Community Builders can strengthen this work by insisting disability inclusion is designed with the same seriousness leaders apply to any core function.
Read the Full Article: How hiring People of Determination can help companies thrive.
By: Abdulla Al Humaidan
