ictQATAR – the Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology and MADA- Qatar Assistive Technology Center in Qatar had asked empirica to develop and present a VOE model and blueprint for selected groups of people with disabilities in Qatar. The overall objective was to help increase the employment levels of people with special needs and disabilities in Qatar by using new forms of work organization and employment based on ICT such as teleworking and virtual office environments. This guide will become an integral part of the overall VOE implementation guide to help Qatari organizations to implement VOE models for the employment of people with disabilities.

According to the latest available official data sources, about 3,680 Qatari nationals aged 15 or older are registered as economically inactive due to disability (“unable to work”), about one third of which are at working age. The share of disabled Qataris who are economically active was 7% for women and 13% for men in 2007 (an improvement against the situation in 1997 when the figures were 3% and 12%, respectively). As in all other countries in the Arab world and beyond, employment rates for people with disabilities are substantially lower than the figures for individuals without disabilities.

It is against this background that ictQATAR – the Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology and MADA- Qatar Assistive Technology Center in Qatar had asked empirica to develop and present a VOE model and blueprint for selected groups of people with disabilities in Qatar. The overall objective was to help increase the employment levels of people with special needs and disabilities in Qatar by using new forms of work organization and employment based on ICT such as teleworking and virtual office environments.

The implementation guide has been delivered in February 2011. It focuses on three types of disabilities most widespread among Qatar population with special needs, e.g. vision impairment, dyslexia (reading and writing problems), and mobility impairment and builds on the “Implementation Guide for Virtual Office Environments in Qatar” which empirica had developed for ictQATAR ictQATAR in 2010. This guide will become an integral part of the overall VOE implementation guide to help Qatari organizations to implement VOE models for the employment of people with disabilities.