Uber Partnership to Create Jobs for Disabled

Ride-sharing giant Uber has teamed up with an Australian start-up in an attempt to create thousands of jobs for people disability.

Enabled Employment, a labour hire company operated by people with disability for people with disability, has partnered with Uber to extend flexible economic opportunities for disabled people who are able to drive.

Uber said it hoped the partnership would not only help Enabled Employment members find well-paid income opportunities, but it also encouraged the 53 per cent of disabled people with a driving licence to consider driving on the UberX platform.

“For over four million people with a disability, facing adversity is part of everyday life. Especially when it comes to participation in the workforce. Unfortunately there are still significant barriers to earning a steady income for many people with a disability,” Uber said in a statement.

“Unemployment rates for this community are unacceptably high. This year unemployment for people with disability was twice as high as the general population and labour force participation was half that of the non-disabled workforce.

“At Uber we believe everyone has the right to financial independence, and flexible economic opportunities should be made available to all.”

Enabled Employment CEO Jessica May welcomed the partnership and the signing of a national agreement to get more people with disability to consider becoming a driver partner with Uber.

“We are delighted to be in partnership with a fellow company that is disrupting the current way we do things. Enabled Employment is proud to be disrupting the disability employment sector and bringing about social change which is why we think we are a perfect fit for working with Uber,” May said.

“Uber is a big believer in diversity and are already challenging the stigma by offering an extension to their app which accounts for people with difficulties in hearing or speaking. This opens up a world of opportunities for people with disabilities to earn a flexible income as Uber-partners.

“Uber offers flexible options for people with disabilities and their carers to get back into the workforce, which is what is needed to increase diversity. As long as the requirements for Uber are met, people can be their own boss, work when they want, including around medical appointments or their limitations, and still earn a decent wage.”

Since launching in 2009, Uber has expanded to over 330 cities worldwide and now employs over one million people around the world.

Drivers use their own car to pick up customers, with more than one million riders and 15,000 driver-partners using the system in Australia alone.

It has not been without controversy however, with the taxi industry claiming that it often uses unqualified drivers and is not regulated properly.