SoftServe Mexico launches EmpowerU course with People with Disabilities Movement

Guaranteeing equal opportunities for people in the workplace, education, and society in general is one of the most important humanity challenges; companies, governments, and the population can be part of the change if they embrace that responsibility to transform it into commitment, through concrete actions.

In the specific case of people with disabilities, worldwide seven out of ten are inactive at work, compared to four out of ten people without disabilities, according to the United Nations (UN). This situation especially affects women, who face enormous barriers that prevent them from participating in the labor market.

In Mexico, the Encuesta Nacional de la Dinámica Demográfica (ENADID 2018) indicates that of the population aged 12 or older, 7,877,805 have some disability, with 54.1% women and 45.9% men. Of this group, only 18.3% of women participate in economic activity, compared to 42.3% of men with disabilities and 35.5% of women without disabilities. This is reflected in the economic participation rate of this population, reaching 30% compared to people without disabilities (almost 54%).

After EmpowerU’s first edition in Mexico benefited 25 female students and university graduates through DevOps training, for this new call the technology will be WebUI, which will allow participants with motor disabilities to have the basic knowledge to create a website.

Through a seven-week learning program called “Fundamentals WebUI Course”, SoftServe experts will provide registrants with a valuable range of knowledge and skills from the ground up for professional development in programming, sharing their knowledge and experiences while covering relevant topics such as Introduction to WebUI, Git/GitHub, HTML5, CSS, Bootstrap, JavaScript, DOM Manipulation, Fetch/Ajax, Node.js, Online Shop, and React basics.

“Strengthening the skills, knowledge, and competencies of people with disabilities through a program like EmpowerU is key. Not only can it ensure stronger job opportunities for them, it also plays a fundamental role in improving their quality of life and of their environment”; says Martha García, Movement of People with Disabilities co-founder

“Movimiento de Personas con Discapacidad” is a social movement that emerged in Mexico with a presence in seven countries more (Costa Rica, Bolivia, El Salvador, Honduras, Uruguay, Colombia and Venezuela) seeking the dignity of the people with disabilities and the issues that concern them, fighting to achieve their full recognition as people subject to rights to be able to exercise them in equal and equitable conditions.

The “Fundamentals WebUI Course” call, aimed exclusively at people with motor disabilities, is open from September 1 to 27 on this website, where interested people can register. The course is free, its space is limited and will take place from October 3 to November 16, 2023, with two sessions per week. As it is a fundamental course, enrolled people don't need to have experience in technology; only a computer with internet access and the use of Zoom are required to take the classes.

“So far in 2023, more than 80 people have already completed the courses we conducted around the world as part of EmpowerU. Our goal is to reach more than 300 participants this year, with a presence in Mexico and six other countries such as Colombia, Chile, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Ukraine”; says Erandi López, leader of Corporate Social Responsibility for SoftServe México.

The launch of EmpowerU’s second edition occurs in a context where the average schooling of the population aged 15 years or older with a disability in Mexico is 4.7 years, while at the national level without distinguishing conditions the average is 8.6 years (ENADID 2018).