The paper shows the complexty of the process of protecting the rights of people with disabilities and the legal protection mechanisms that are available to them. Peopele with disabilities represent a particulary vulnerable society group which needs to be taken care of them in oreder to integrate into society. They should also be included in the labour market as much as possible, especially in the open labor market. The fact of being disabled is a big problem to many people with disabilities. It´s often the basis for different forms of discrimination (positive or negative) that people with disabilities encounter but also confront. The first problem of people with disabilities is stigmatization by the society because people with physical or psychological differences are called invalids which puts them in a certain group and marks them different from people without physical or psychological differences. It can be concluded that people with disabilities are discriminated only because of barriers set by the society. Such behavior of the society increases the whole problem from the use of terminology for the mentioned society group to the realization of their rights, but without taking their needs into consideration. In extremely hard times, when the economy is in crisis more and more, unemployment includes the most vulnerable society group – people with disabilities. Unemployment problem of people with disabilities is quite large, because people with disabilities often do not meet the needs of the open market. The problem is their education as well as work ability. Therefore the paper presents progress made by the Republic of Croatia with regard to the legislative institutional framework in the area of securing rights to people with disabilities. The work particularly analyses the rights to work and employment of people with disabilities in the territory of the Republic of Croatia. An important part of the paper is also the institucional infrastructure that has developed in the Republic of Croatia, which refers to professional rehabilitation of people with disabilities, social model of inclusion, models of emloyment and measures that make this happen.