DISABILITY AND WORK, UDINE 2026
The Universities of Udine (LP), Belgrade, Cordoba, and Toulouse Capitole present their Blended Intensive Program Erasmus, a short-term international intensive experience, including both online and mobility experiences.
The 5th Labour Law BIP program in Udine will focus on studying and reflecting on recent developments in the topic of Disability and Work.
An estimated 1.3 billion people worldwide live with some form of disability, representing nearly 16% of the global population. In both the European Union and beyond, the intersection of disability and employment raises complex challenges. Definitions of “disability” vary significantly across legal, cultural, and institutional contexts, shaping the scope of rights and protections. People with disabilities face persistent barriers in accessing the labour market, including structural discrimination and inadequate implementation of reasonable accommodations. Chronic illnesses, which often remain invisible, further complicate participation and recognition within the workplace. Moreover, the role of informal caregivers—who often balance employment with intensive care responsibilities—adds another dimension to the debate on inclusive labour policies. Addressing these issues requires coherent legal frameworks and proactive strategies to foster accessibility, equality, and sustainable inclusion.
The comparative approach offered by the BIP, involving French, Italian, Serbian, and Spanish experts, will concentrate on the challenges posed by national and supranational regulations.
How can contemporary labour markets claim to be truly inclusive if persons with disabilities remain disproportionately excluded from stable and dignified employment? What value does the principle of “reasonable accommodation” hold when its concrete application is still uneven and often resisted? To what extent can chronic illnesses and neurodivergent conditions—frequently invisible and socially underestimated—be neglected, when they profoundly shape individual work trajectories and workplace interactions? Can the promise of equal opportunities be fulfilled if the very definition of disability varies so widely across jurisdictions, thereby undermining both legal certainty and effective protection? Is it not paradoxical that the indispensable contribution of caregivers, who reconcile professional duties with demanding care responsibilities, continues to be overlooked in labour law and policy debates? And ultimately, can societies afford the economic and moral cost of sidelining the talents, competences, and aspirations of more than one billion people worldwide?
The training session will altern presentation of various aspects of the question of the approach of disability at work in employment law, and a practical approach by the students of the matter in workshops, and a final restitution. The lectures will present the global International and European framework protecting disability in the workplace and discrimination law, as well as in depth analysis of essential questions such as the notions of accommodation, inclusion and accessibility, intersectional discrimination, as well as the presentation of the intervention of administrations and equality bodies in the protection of disabled persons.
Working in groups of 7-10 students, under the supervision of the teaching staff, will have the mission to study from a practical point of view the many questions studied during the conference. Each group will have the duty to study in depth a case by the European Court of justice, and to propose an alternative redaction of the judgement in order to promote, using existing norms and case law, a case with an inclusive perspective on people with disabilities, with a detailed motivation.
