Alter-European Journal of Disability Research最新文献

Employment is central to an individual's well-being. Work-related expectations of individuals with developmental disabilities were compared with those of service coordinators. Variables included the type of work expected, expected number of work hours, employment-related concerns, desired workplace supports, and influence that both the severity of a disability and service coordinator's work experience have on work expectations. Data were collected from 46 individuals with developmental disabilities through interviews and from 46 coordinators through an online survey. Results indicated positive work expectations overall. The most common work expected was service and trade work. Competitive employment was expected more frequently than sheltered workshops. While work expectations of service coordinators and those individuals with mild developmental disabilities were closely aligned, a greater distinction in work expectations existed between coordinators and individuals with moderate or severe developmental disabilities. These results have important implications for assisting job placement for adults with developmental disabilities.

To regain or remain in employment, people with occupational limitations due to health issues can apply for programmes in the context of vocational rehabilitation. In Germany, 20% of applicants do not take up vocational rehabilitation. Using administrative data on all applicants for whom the German Federal Employment Agency is responsible, logistic and fixed effects regression is applied to identify groups not taking up vocational rehabilitation. Analyses reveal that employed people less often take-up vocational rehabilitation. However, the probability of take-up rises significantly following the loss of employment between two applications. Thus, compared to other applicants employed applicants are at higher risk of not taking-up vocational rehabilitation or of taking it up (too) late. Using social problems theory, it can be argued that occupational limitations are harder to assess in the case of employed applicants. Furthermore, employed applicants have specific fears of losing their status. The reasons for non-take-up or delayed take-up should be investigated furthermore.

The under-representation of persons with disabilities in employment is documented. However, the restrictions for persons with disabilities to accessing paid work are not well known in their variations by type of impairment. Moreover, they are likely to be confused with job exits because of work-related impairments. Using the 2011 Employment Survey and its ad hoc module, this article identifies factors and processes contributing to inactivity, unemployment, or their co-presence, for people aged 15–64 living in households in metropolitan France and having an impairment that occurred before the end of their initial training. Depending on the type and degree of impairment, multifactorial disabling mechanisms occur at varying stages, drawing three “out-of-employment patterns”: inactivity for people with cognitive impairment or mild mental health impairment, unemployment for people with severe visual impairment or moderate mobility impairment, and coexistence of both for people with severe mobility impairment or severe mental health impairment. Moreover, the administrative recognitions of disabilities have nuanced effects (depending on which rights are associated) and the benefits of diplomas are heterogeneous according to the subgroups.

The article elaborates on the emergence of a new social category: the “worker incapable of working”, which has not yet been recognized in the scientific literature. In Germany, people excluded from the labour market are increasingly employed in workshops for people with disabilities due to what is defined as a total incapacity to work. In addition to the objective of labour market participation of people with disabilities, these workshops assume the aim of (re)establishing their performance and monitoring their reintegration into the general labour market. Changes in the profiles of people working in the workshops and their recent expansion are described, as well as the transformation of working processes and conditions, especially through digitalisation. The consequences of these transformations are studied within the framework of “activating” policies.

This short report discusses issues related to the employment policy and vocational activity support system for people with intellectual disabilities in Poland. The analyses are based on data from a broader research project entitled Employment and Disability. The reconstruction of the Vocational Experience of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities in Poland. The project sought to explore the work-related situation of persons with intellectual disabilities regarding the employment policy, support practices in workplaces, and vocational experience of employees with intellectual disabilities, their job coaches and the coordinators of employment projects. The methodological framework combined the grounded theory set in social constructivism, as presented in Charmaz's works, with discourse analysis and the sociologically-oriented analysis of practices. The data were collected in 25 workplaces employing persons with disabilities in various parts of Poland, mainly by means of in-depth interviews, observation, and field notes. Although analyses discussing the specificity of Polish employment policy indicate that the vocational activity of persons with intellectual disabilities is promoted in Poland, in reality its implementation is difficult. The difficulties result from the poor quality law regulating vocational activity, lack of adequate legislative solutions, barriers on the part of employers, and the absence of sufficient financial support.

In Japan, disability policies have significantly evolved over the last twenty years, be it in the field of social welfare, education or employment. Until recently, most workers with disabilities were employed in blue-collar jobs involving repetitive tasks. However, the reform of the education system that took place in 2006 has contributed to the development of mainstream schooling and improved the accessibility of universities for disabled students. Therefore, the number of students with disabilities in higher education is slowly increasing, as well as the number of people with disabilities holding a university degree, thus challenging the common representation of people with disabilities as unskilled workers. Yet, the academic literature on disabled people's employment has hardly investigated the specificities of the situation of qualified disabled workers. The case of people with disabilities holding a university degree or a professional qualification, is mainly discussed in terms of access, through the lens of the transition from university to employment. But what are the career patterns of qualified disabled workers on the long run? This paper aims to explore to what extent disability impact qualified disabled workers’ career development. It analyzes interview data collected during two fieldwork stays in Japan and discusses qualified disabled workers’ lived experiences of employment with a long-term perspective.