Working in fashion, an option for everyone

For a customer to enter a store and be served by an employee with an intellectual disability should be a completely natural situation. Today, unfortunately, it still isn't. To understand why, we need to change our perspective on what intellectual disability is.

For decades, intellectual disability has been conceived as a deficit in the person, where society's response has been one of condescension, at best, or exclusion. Today, research and successful inclusive practices confirm that disability is not an invariant trait of the person, but rather the result of a mismatch between their capabilities and the demands of the context in which they live. Who needs to change, therefore, is not the person. It's the context.

This change in perspective brings a firm conviction in the capabilities and rights of all people. If disability is a mismatch between the person and the environment, what is needed is to reduce it and promote opportunities for success in different areas of life. To achieve this, we need to identify the needs for extraordinary support and provide strategies that allow the person to learn, work, relate, and, ultimately, live fully in society. And this society is one, for everyone.

Certainly, today the word "inclusion" is present in all social and public policy debates. But the concept, despite its strength, doesn't always tell us how to do it, what practices to promote, what minimums to demand, or what results to expect. International research has taken a step forward by proposing a new framework, the paradigm of shared citizenship, which grounds the concept of inclusion and offers us concrete tools to make it real. A framework aimed at ensuring that all people, regardless of their abilities, live with dignity and autonomy, achieve their personal and professional goals, and, above all, act as full members in all community settings.

This framework is what has been present in the Chair of the University of Barcelona and Inditex, an initiative to train people with intellectual disabilities and prepare them to work in fashion stores. The chair aligns with the three key objectives of the shared citizenship paradigm. On the one hand, it enhances self-determination by giving people with intellectual disabilities the real opportunity to choose to work in the fashion sector. On the other hand, it facilitates their initiatives by accompanying them in a quality and rigorous training process in a university environment until they achieve a meaningful job. And, finally, it maximizes their participation by making possible the sense of belonging, social relationships, and community life that working in a real environment entails.

The results of the first edition of the Chair of the University of Barcelona and Inditex have shown that real labor inclusion is possible when the university and the business world unite for the same goal and put all their resources at the service of people. Both for the university and for companies, it has been a transformative experience, as they have been able to confirm that when quality training and the necessary support are offered, people with intellectual disabilities respond and contribute like any other student and, subsequently, professional. Without a doubt, therefore, organizations that demonstrate the ability to identify and provide the extraordinary support that each person needs to give their best are, ultimately, the organizations that make a difference.

Promoting a fairer society is, at its core, a matter of priorities and will. For too long, people with intellectual disabilities have borne the consequences of a context that has not adapted to their needs. In a society that claims to be advanced, it is high time to be brave in changing our perspective. University institutions must be among the main drivers of this change, and they must exercise this role hand in hand with companies, public authorities, and all agents of the social system, because otherwise, the mismatch will no longer be between the person with an intellectual disability and the context, but between excellence and society.