Universal Design Applied to Inclusive and Sustainable Economy for All

The territorial sustainability of the economy and access to quality employment, considering the real possibilities of each territory, are closely and indissolubly related. Often, the design of training strategies for employment and entrepreneurship is presented as a series of dissociated actions: sometimes focusing on the economic sphere (in the promotion of a sector product, its sustainability and profitability), other times only focused on the social sphere (with equity measures towards a specific interest group, such as immigrants, gender groups and ethnic minorities) or in the design of training programs that do not take into account the needs and strategies of the productive sectors and the new trends and occupational niches (place of destination of the people trained). Statistical data impose the reality on us. Despite all the efforts made, the employment of PwID is much further away than that of people without disabilities. This chapter establishes that support for the group of People with Intellectual Disabilities (PwID) can and must be an element of social cohesion and economic development of the territories. We describe the experience we have developed and demonstrate that we have been able to promote employment with training that has put PwID in contact with the real world of work.