Growing opportunities

The growing interest of people living with disabilities moving toward employment online is borne out by a report, dating back to December 2015, by Alibaba’s (China’s version of E-bay) Ali Research Institute. Released at the China Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF) in Beijing, the report analyzed aspects of store owners and customers on Taobao, one of Alibaba’s major online marketplaces. It showed that the Internet has created a growing number of job opportunities for people living with disabilities in China.

As of June 2015, a total of 316,000 people living with disabilities had opened online stores on Taobao. The report also showed that 80 percent of the owners earned nearly 30,000 yuan ($4,600) a year from their online stores.

Jin Jianhang, President of Alibaba, said the group is dedicated to cooperate with the CDPF and other organizations to establish an online barrier-free environment that allows people living with disabilities to enjoy equal rights with others on the Internet.

With this in mind, there are several forms of ecommerce entrepreneurial models for people living with disabilities. Like Gao, a lot of people living with disabilities opened their own stores based on the e-commerce platforms. They sell and deliver products from home with no need to go out.

Another model offered by Taobao is its job facilitation program for people living with disabilities, launched in 2011, offering call-center jobs that allow handling customer calls at home. For example, in July 2016, Dazhou City, located in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, supported by the Dazhou Disabled Persons’ Federation, carried out a “Cloud Customer Service” training program to help