Jupid

Our app will be able to match jobs to disabled people based on their preferences and appropriation with guides and opportunities available.

We work on matching disabled employees with employers/ companies based on the appropriation and preferences, so they can both build on each other and achieve the most together. This would give more opportunities to people with disabilities. The technology is similar to a dating app where they fill in their interest, goals, past accomplishments, disorder, type of help that is needed, etc, and they will be matched with a company/ employer. They now have a chance to read about the company/employee, whether it satisfies their interests or not, and then they can choose to pass or select that company/employee. An email will be sent to the company specifically if the users say yes. There would also be a section where they can select their dream companies and find out about their job criteria for specific positions within the company. 

Our research has shown that people with disabilities are more likely to be unemployed, and stay that way, than their counterparts with no disabilities. The employment-population ratio for people with and without disabilities was 17.9 : 61.8 in 2020. There may be rational reasons regarding the employment rate, such as the lack of the necessary knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics required for the available jobs.  iPWDs (disabled) may also be less productive than people without disabilities and entail higher labor costs, including insurance costs. But, Ableism may also play a big factor. Some without disabilities tend to look down on those with, and view them as inferior. They have biases on what these people can and can’t do, hence their lower employment rate, simply from the reason of “They can’t do it.” Many don’t realize that they are capable of so much more, if given the chance. They may even have more potential than people without disabilities. We want to make sure that every person’s talent and gifts are seen without unnecessary factors trying to overshadow them, and that they are normal people like all of us, who can work, eat, and live just as we do. They deserve to be able to receive good pay as much as everybody else. 

We wanted to ensure that people would have jobs and money to be able to support themselves and their families. Alongside that, we also want adolescents to have the capability of reaching their full potential. Research says, over 75% of American college students can’t decide their career path yet. We hope that our app will help improve economic opportunities for passionate students and adults who are in need of finding a job or accomplishing their dream. As passionate students ourselves, we hope to see more students having a clear path for their future as well as their careers. “80% to 90% of persons with disabilities of working age are unemployed, whereas in industrialized countries the figure is between 50% and 70>#/p###

The unemployment rate for disabled people was 8.4% in October-December 2020, up from 6.9% a year previously. This compared to an unemployment rate of 4.6% for people who are not disabled.

We have done much research on certain potential consumers and have worked with organizations that align with our interests. We have also discussed the project and interviewed a few individuals, to let them help with the developing stage, advise us on how to proceed, and their opinion on our work. We have tried to change accordingly to fit with the mass’s best interests while still retaining the parts we feel are best. 

We feel like our idea could be explored to reach a potential larger audience. As said in the elevator pitch, we see that our concept could be applied to handle the refugee crisis (by matching the most compatible country, job, and a refugee together ) and also in education (by informing about future career opportunities). We also found ourselves in an area where extra assistance is required, namely finances (to make our concept possible) and technology (creating the actual app), in which we need mentoring. We also require information that may not be accessible to someone of our status, since we need key information on how some companies operate, which may or may not violate some privacy regulations. As of right now, we have come up with a design prototype of how our innovation will look and the budget design.

We are hoping that if we are able to make the application, this would affect a lot of disabled people starting in Thailand. We wanted them to be happy and receive the opportunities they deserve. We have already done some interviews with organizations and experts and hope that we will be able to solve this big issue and make thousands of people have a better life. 

To do this, we plan to edit our rough draft of our visualization of our app. After we have a clear plan, we would show it to a professional to help us with the technical work and start making the application (we hope we will get the funds and professional help by entering this challenge). Then, we will introduce the app to many disabled communities and universities in Thailand, so that people would be able to start looking for jobs. We would also promote our application to interested employers who are willing to help and have the right match to our community.

In order to accomplish this application, there are financial, technical, legal, and barriers. Creating an app costs around $60,000 to $150,000. We have limited resources that may not be sufficient to create an application that perfectly suits our original design, which is a technical obstacle. “ A suggestion I would like to make regarding legal barriers is data security and privacy of both the companies and the disabled. Compliance regulations would be needed to protect both the employer’s and employee’s personal information. In the matching preference case, the app's user may not have to provide their Thai identity card number”, advised by the legal officer of Thailand Association of the Blind. This is another barrier that we need to overcome in order to fully fulfill the major goal of Jupid. 

We are not currently partnering with any organizations, but some of the people and organizations we interviewed are interested in our idea (if we are able to make the application they may be interested in investing in it).