“I’ve had a dozen interviews and each time it’s the same answer: we can’t take someone who can’t travel everywhere,” says, with a hint of bitterness, Elias Semaan, a graduate in community management and suffering from generalized muscular dystonia forcing him to use a wheelchair.
A situation that propels him among the 14% of unemployed active disabled people, twice as many as for the rest of the population, according to INSEE. A problem that Web3 could partially solve. “The opportunities are numerous and it is important that the people concerned seize them to make things happen from the inside”, underlines Véronique Bustreel, director of innovation at Agefiph. Even before talking about employability, the metaverse could, according to her, be a “tremendous” training tool due to its infinite possibilities of role-playing. “I can perform gestures there that I do in real life and determine what I can or cannot do depending on my state of health,” she explains.
An asset against discrimination
A sentiment shared by Frédéric Bardeau, founder of Simplon.co who sees opportunities in recruitment. “When you have a motor disability, you don’t have to represent yourself as such thanks to your avatar”. An asset to fight against discrimination in hiring. “This would make it possible to identify these people above all as talents, rather than as handicapped people,” said Khadija Lakhrouf, a student at Simplon. While the world is already projecting itself into the metaverse, there remains the question of the accessibility of these interfaces. “Developers have to be pragmatic”, Véronique Bustreel gauge.
With 87 million people with disabilities in Europe and 12 million in France, “there is a market”. Thinking about Web3 without thinking about disability would mean losing 15% of potential customers. An “aberration” for any economic model.