Content updated on August 9, 2024.
It can be difficult for people with disabilities to find a job. Help is available to promote hiring them.
You’re not alone
The Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale (MESS) provides universal access to its employment services. No matter what their disability, people who go to a Services Québec office will be welcomed. There they’ll get the support they need for the assessment interview and employment assistance.
The Office des personnes handicapées du Québec (OPHQ) offers customized help to people with disabilities and to their families. You can ask for assistance with your job search and employment integration.
People with disabilities who receive last-resort financial assistance may qualify for the Social Assistance and Support Program:
- The Action Program to develop their social skills and better organize their daily lives.
- The Réussir Program to pursue a vocational, college or university education at a pace that is adapted to their situation.
Finding a job
Do you know about accredited adapted businesses? Subsidized by MESS, at least 60% of the staff of these businesses are people with a disability.
DuoEmploi makes it possible for young people 16 and over with a disability to discover a workplace during a one-day internship.
Interested in the civil service? The Programme de développement de l’employabilité à l’intention des personnes handicapées offers the possibility of casual employment designed for skills development over a 12-month contract.
Be an informed worker
Do you know that employers can be assisted in hiring, integrating or retaining people with disabilities? One of the things that employment integration contracts can do is enable employers to tailor the workplace to employees’ special needs. To compensate for the lack of productivity associated with employees’ limitations, a wage subsidy is also available.
Certain Revenu Québec measures can lighten the financial load of workers with disabilities:
- The Disability Supports Deduction: the allowable goods or services must enable you to have a job or play an active role in operating a business.
- The Adapted Work Premium: the Premium is issued to adult workers with a disability or with a severely limited capacity for employment. Work income must be between $1,200 and a given threshold determined based on the family situation.
If you have travel to work and have an impairment that makes movement over short distances a challenge, you can apply for a disabled parking permit. See this article or the website of the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ).
Need help? Having a problem?
To know more about employment measures and adapted work, go to Quebec.ca.
Are you dissatisfied with OPHQ, Services Québec, Revenu Québec or SAAQ services? Having trouble accessing Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale services? Contact the Protecteur du citoyen. We handle complaints about Government of Québec departments and agencies free of charge and in the strictest confidence.
Also see: Financial support for my child with a disability: what happens at age 18?
