Integrating People with Disabilities into Society: From Education to Work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

<p xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" class="first" dir="auto" id="d11197368e135">Disability is one of the important topics that most countries in the world, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, are concerned about. Disability encompasses social and economic dimensions beyond statistical monitoring. The aim of this study is to shed light on the increase in the integration of people with disabilities into society, especially in the education and labor market sectors. This is done by identifying the neediest groups with disabilities and determining the type of needs required in various services, in addition to studying the size of disparities in obtaining services according to different characteristics. This is done based on the descriptive analytical method using many nonparametric tests to analyze the data published on the Open Data Portal. The results of the analysis of the demographic characteristics of people with disabilities showed that disability rates among women (aged 60 years and older) are the highest compared to men of the same age. In addition to the existence of disparities in the adequacy of infrastructure and the quality of education according to the regions of the Kingdom, there is a significant difference in the student–teacher ratio according to the regions (χ ² = 39.593, <i>P</i> < 0.001), which indicates that the ratios of students to teachers are not equal between regions, but rather vary significantly. The percentage of male trainees is higher than that of female trainees. There is also an inverse correlation between the duration of training and the obtaining of a job, and there is a weak inverse correlation between the duration of training and the age of the trainee. In addition, there is a disparity in the period required to qualify for the labor market between men and women. This requires the development of specialized policies to address these gaps, for example, improving teacher distribution, increasing the suitability of school infrastructure, and strengthening partnerships between educational institutions and the labor market, in addition to integrating people with disabilities and employers into the design of rehabilitation programs. </p>