(Occupational) participation by disabled people: can the UN Convention open up new perspectives?

Many of the aspects informing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities have long since been an object of political and social consensus in Germany under the umbrella concept of "participation". The dual system of vocational education and training contains instruments for "compensation for disadvantage" and for "the regulation of training by the competent bodies". This constitutes a legal framework which integrates disabled people "from the very outset". The selfevident necessity of implementing statutory stipulations is, however, often lacking in practice. There is also a need to continue the process of drawing up binding benchmarks for training regulations enacted at a regional level and to create bridges to areas of VET which lie outside the scope of application of the Vocational Training Act and the Crafts and Trades Regulation Code. The present paper recapitulates developments which have taken place in vocational education and training to facilitate participation by people with disabilities and explains how such developments can be lent a new impetus by the UN Convention.