Hongkou District has pioneered the city's first "Barrier-Free Employment Living Room" for people with disabilities to better assist them in finding employment.
They can receive employment guidance and services, participate in "cloud interviews" with employers, and find job opportunities in the live broadcast room at the newly unveiled facility.
The facility was launched on January 26 during the 2024 Hongkou District Spring Employment Promotion Special Action event, co-organized by the Hongkou District Disabled Persons Federation, the District Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, and the Quyang Road Subdistrict.
The "Barrier-Free Employment Living Room" at 471 Miyun Road spans over 100 square meters and includes several functional areas.
Upon entering, visitors are greeted with a large screen displaying employment recruitment information for disabled people. Adjacent to it is a live broadcast room, where two hosts introduce job information to online job seekers.
The "cloud interview" platform allows job seekers to communicate face-to-face with HR representatives from employing units.
Wang Jia, a visually impaired individual currently unemployed, successfully interviewed with a commercial company through the cloud platform. After a 15-minute conversation, she was pleased with the offered position and salary, finding the doorstep "cloud interview" very convenient.
For those with hearing impairments, the platform has a voice-to-text translation system, facilitating their job interviews. This system maximizes the employment needs of the hearing impaired, effectively helping them grasp more job opportunities and promoting high-quality employment.
The "Barrier-Free Employment Living Room" also serves as a platform for employment guidance and information exchange.
Regular salons will be held, inviting entrepreneurship guidance experts from Shanghai and Hongkou District's employment assistance instructors for the disabled, discussing how to care for the disabled community and empower employment and entrepreneurship.
Previously, people with disabilities seeking employment had to visit local and district disabled persons federations or employment stations, which was quite inconvenient, said a representative from the Hongkou District Disabled Persons Federation.
The establishment of the "Barrier-Free Employment Living Room" uses technology to provide sophisticated services, building a platform for disabled persons with "barrier-free communication and social integration," making it the most influential and popular employment home in the region, the official added.
In 2023, the Hongkou District Disabled Persons Federation has helped 270 disabled individuals find employment through visiting enterprises and outsourcing job creation to third-party agencies.
This year, the federation plans to continue building a more comprehensive service network that covers all areas and reaches all levels.
The pilot "Barrier-Free Employment Studios" have initiated in Quyang, Ouyang, and Liangcheng subdistricts. These studios will keep pace with new business forms and trends, providing zero-distance employment services for disabled persons, with plans to gradually expand across the entire district, according to the federation.