Introduction

Effective implementation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for education of people with disabilities is topical to all countries, espessially for those states that have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities (Convention, 2006). However, educational requests of disabled are widely diversed. However, the policy in education of people with disabilities should also focus on effective employment after completion of education.

This paper includes theoretical issues resulted from and practical case of developing and application of a project named "Development of Automated Integrated System (AIS) of Distant Learning, Socio-psychological Rehabilitation and Employment of Disabled in Belarus" based on European experience of education and employment of disabled people using ICT. The project was developed in 2004-2009 and was included into Review of innovative practice of UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education in 2011 (UNESCO, 2011).

According to the official data by the Belarus National Statistical Committee the number of fully unemployed people in Belarus since the beginning of 2012 has raised by 30%. In the public sector the number of people who are partially unemployed (they are forced by the administration to take non-paid leaves or to work part-time) has increased since 2010 by 5,3 times. The case of young people with disabilities and challenges they are facing in social inclusion could serve as an example. There are 119,893 young people with special needs in Belarus, including 29,282 disabled. Their needs include quality education, social integration and rehabilitation, psychosocial and medical support. Until recently the approaches and the responses have been essentially remedial and corrective, mainly by setting up differentiated structures, tracks and special schools, which feeds in many cases institutional and pedagogical segregation and isolation.

However, mainstream schools do not provide any initial vocational training for people with special needs and as a result they leave schools unprepared for professional life.

Parents of students usually object to integration of people with disabilities in the mainstream educational institutions and insist that these students should study in segregated educational environment.

The project described in this paper was developed in the Republic of Belarus and was based on collaboration between the Belarusian State University, Institute of Management and Social Technologies (www.e-edu.by) and the Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics (MESI), Minsk Branch of MESI (www.mesi.ru). The main aim was to develop a database of information relating to and for people with disabilities wanting to be professionally re-qualified, e-learning educational services for higher professional education (economics, marketing, accounting) and relevant vacancies within the employment market in Belarus. The ultimate aim for the initiative was to support the social rehabilitation of people with disabilities via the simplification of procedures for gaining employment via an automated system for accessing information and e-learning opportunities.

Convention (2006) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=150 (accessed 30/01/2014) UNESCO (2011) ICTs IN EDUCATION FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES. Review of innovative practice, ed. Amanda Watkins, UNESCO, 2011