Low levels of qualification and employment, professional exclusion, managerial challenges… Disability in the workplace represents a major societal issue that concerns us all.

While many legal frameworks are already in place, there is an urgent need for a multidisciplinary approach that considers the person’s overall life project. This means engaging in forward-thinking reflection, identifying effective action principles, and developing new methods and tools to promote the socio-professional inclusion of people with disabilities.

By bringing together socially responsible companies, experts in disability and employment, associations of people with disabilities, institutional stakeholders, and academic researchers (in the fields of Humanities and Social Sciences, Health, Rehabilitation and Occupational Therapy, Law, Management, Economics, Digital Technologies, and Artificial Intelligence), we are creating a unique synergy of action and knowledge.

To concretely improve professional inclusion, secure career paths, prevent professional exclusion, promote the career development of people with disabilities, and support their mental health at work—through scientific research, innovation, and training.

To become the national reference organization for the scientific and operational approach to the employment of people with disabilities, by combining academic rigor, multidisciplinary expertise, and tangible societal impact.

Our values

Commit to accessibility and equal opportunities. Recognize people with disabilities as key contributors to our projects.

Create, test, and share innovative solutions (methods, systems, and tools). Take into account and anticipate changes in the employment ecosystem.
 

Build strong partnerships with companies, public institutions, associations, and foundations to co-develop high-impact projects.

Design and deliver new training programs for people with disabilities and their work environments (disability officers, recruiters, managers, occupational health services, etc.).

Develop effective methodologies for inclusion, job retention, and securing career paths, and create monitoring and forecasting tools for situations of professional exclusion.

Develop effective methodologies for inclusion, job retention, and securing career paths, and create monitoring and forecasting tools to anticipate situations of professional exclusion.

Give new momentum to research by drawing on the lived experience of people with disabilities to improve quality of life and occupational health for everyone.

Promote dialogue between academic knowledge and the experiential knowledge of people with disabilities to drive strategic proposals and recommendations in today’s increasingly complex organizational landscape.

Based at UPEC, the Chair draws on the excellence of its faculties, research labs, and training centers (Faculty of Health, INSPE, IUT, BIOTN, LISSI, LIRTES laboratories, etc.) to develop transdisciplinary solutions in occupational health and disability.

It also relies on a unique network of experts, led by Karine Gros since 2009, who have already trained over 600 professionals through the Disability Officer University Diploma and who are actively involved in innovative research projects.
Join us to co-create inclusive and sustainable career paths.