Supporting mainstream employers in hiring highly-educated persons with disabilities
- Solution
- CareER Disability Inclusion Index (DII)
- Organization
- CareER Association
- Country of Implementation
- China - Hong Kong
- Region
- Asia & Pacific
- Subregion
- Southeast Asia
- Start Year
- 2021
- First published
- 03.12.2024

Solution details
“CareER DII supports corporates to identify inclusive strategies for employing persons with disabilities in the mainstream workplace.” Ms. Olivia Wong, General Manager, Environmental & Social Responsibility, MTR Corporation Limited
CareER Association Ltd. is a Hong Kong-based DPO that promotes inclusive hiring for highly-educated people with disabilities. In 2021 the organization launched its Disability Inclusion Index (DII), a tool for employers to monitor the inclusivity of its workspace and employment. Based on the findings, CareER empowers employers from a wide range of industries through strategic advisory services, trainings, and accessibility assessments. With DII, CareER assesses 30 employers a year, leading to some 200 jobs placements for persons with disabilities.
Problems Targeted
Many employers lack the knowledge and tools to create inclusive workspaces and employment opportunities for persons with disabilities.
Solution, Innovation and Impact
CareER (Care in Education and Recruitment) is a DPO providing job services focusing on students and graduates with disabilities. The CareER Disability Inclusion Index (DII) is a pioneering framework and assessment tool created in partnership with highly-educated persons with disabilities, business leaders, charitable foundations, employers, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. DII assesses employers in eight key areas of disability inclusion, identifying areas for improvement. The ultimate goal is to raise the readiness of employers for inclusive hiring and to promote a culture of disability inclusion within their companies. Based on these assessments, CareER provides advisory support, including corporate training, accessibility assessments, and strategic advisory services to a wide range of industries, including finance. It also organizes recruitment fairs and provides job-matching services; and its DII accumulates real data on corporate performance. The number of corporations signing up for the Disability Inclusion Index has grown from 19 in 2021 to 38 in 2023. Nearly 70 per cent of these are multinationals, and over 70 per cent have a staff size of over 1,000 in Hong Kong.
Funding, Outlook and Transferability
In its first three years of operation, DII was funded with US$128,000 by a charitable foundation as seed money and US$102,000 from corporations that signed up as members. From 2024 onwards, DII is run on a self-sustaining basis. CareER aims to expand the DII’s scope to other Asian cities, and has already trialled the tool with its business partners in their Asian offices, such as India and South Korea. (Zero Project Awardee 2025)
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