Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation最新文献

Background: A large portion of the population of people with visual impairments are neither working nor looking for work. Mentoring and self-employment are two strategies to encourage workforce participation, but little is known about whether people with visual impairments who are out of the labor force were offered or were interested in these options.

Objective: We explored whether participants were interested in or had been offered mentoring or self-employment assistance to encourage their participation in the workforce.

Methods: Thirty participants with visual impairments and out of the labor force were interviewed about their thoughts and experiences regarding mentoring and self-employment. A qualitative software program assisted in coding responses, identifying themes, and organizing demographics.

Results: Participants tended to be interested in but did not have access to mentors. Some participants explored self-employment opportunities and even more were interested in it, but few were offered it as an employment option by a vocational rehabilitation provider. Most participants were interested in learning more about self-employment job opportunities and how income earned through self-employment might influence other benefits.

Conclusions: Opportunities to support people with visual impairments in locating mentors or engaging in self-employment appear under-utilized. Participants in this study appeared interested in receiving support from a mentor and learning more about self-employment options. Efforts to improve the labor force participation rate among people with visual impairments should include assistance in finding mentors to promote adjustment to blindness and becoming employed and exploring opportunities for self-employment. Vocational rehabilitation agencies should consider examining their policies and practices to promote greater access and use of these strategies to bring people with visual impairments into the labor market.

Background: The Evidence-based Policy-Making Act of 2018 requires that Federal agencies use their data to develop statistical evidence to support policy and programmatic decisions.

Objective: This study assessed Vocational Rehabilitation agency capacity to effectively use their data to inform evidence-based decision-making.

Methods: The Capacity Survey assessed agency capacity in data management, data visualization and statistical analysis. The survey asked for details about (1) the availability of relevant software programs (e.g. SPSS for statistical analysis), and (2) staff expertise to use that software.

Results: Results pointed to capacity gaps that would significantly hinder most agencies' application of even a simplified return on investment model. When examining statistical capacity, 60% of agencies responded "not applicable - staff do not have competence in the listed software packages (including SPSS, SAS, R, Python, Stata, and other)" and 71% of respondents said they lacked internal statistical capacity to analyze data using any of the listed programs.

Conclusions: Results suggested that many state VR agencies lack internal capacity to meet requirements outlined in the Evidence-Based Policy-Making Act of 2018 or regulations related to reporting and performance accountability requirements. Potential solutions to overcome capacity deficits include expanding internal capacity, expanding agency/consultant partnerships, and building cross-agency collaborations.

Background: Employment barriers experienced by people with disabilities are well-documented by researchers. A closer look at the nature of these barriers at different stages of the job acquisition process may help to understand and address current challenges.

Objective: To understand how employment barriers differ for job seekers with and without disabilities; the impact of disability type; and are job acquisition barriers most salient, when looking for, applying to, or accepting a position.

Method: 3,021 working-age adults (including 1,491 adults with disabilities) from a Qualtrics opt-in panel completed an online survey about employment status, job search barriers, and demographic factors (including disability). Logistic regression predicted odds of experiencing a job search barrier based on disability and other sociodemographic factors.

Results: Most job seekers reported barriers to employment, with disability being the strongest predictor. While the types of barriers experienced at all stages of the job search were similar for people with and without disabilities, people with disabilities experienced barriers significantly more often.

Conclusions: Employment barriers among people with and without disabilities are similar in nature but vary by degree. Improvements in transportation and better alignment between education, training, and the job market may benefit all job seekers.

Background: A substantial gap in employment rates has been documented between people with and without visual impairments, but most employment-related research for people with visual impairments has focused on employment at one time point.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine longitudinal employment trajectories by visual impairment and investigate factors associated with trajectories for people with visual impairments.

Method: The data source was the 2014 Panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Participants were 816 adults with visual impairments and a matched comparison group of 816 adults without visual impairments. We used group-based trajectory modeling to estimate employment trajectories, identify predictors of trajectory group membership, and explore the impact of health on employment trajectories.

Results: Visual impairment was associated with a lower probability of membership in the Rising, Declining, and High employment trajectory groups compared to the Low group. Predictors of trajectory group membership included disability benefit receipt, non-visual disabilities, gender, race, age, and education. Fair or poor health was associated with decreases in all four trajectories over time.

Conclusion: Visual impairment is a risk factor for not working across multiple years. Disability benefit receipt was the strongest predictor of trajectory group membership for this population.

Background: People with disabilities are one the most discriminated groups in the United States, and this discrimination negatively impacts the ability to find and maintain employment. While more companies are making it a priority to include people with disabilities in their workforces in order to diversify talent pools, many organizations still lack knowledge regarding the benefits of disability-employment and effective strategies for disability inclusion in the workplace.

Objective: There is a need to provide an integrative review of the disability inclusion literature for vocational rehabilitation professionals to expand employer engagement efforts by helping companies adopt strategies to hire and support people with disabilities in the workplace.

Method: A review of disability employment and disability inclusion publications was conducted. Findings from the research were compiled into a discussion of lessons learned for vocational rehabilitation professionals.

Results: The article shares the lessons learned from conducting disability-employment research with attention to the following domains: (1) stigmatizing attitudes of employers, (2) disability employment legislation, (3) characteristics of companies that promote disability-employment, (4) disability inclusion policies and practices, and (5) implicit bias and disability inclusion training for human resource (HR) professionals.

Conclusion: Providing employers and HR professionals with trainings on these domains will increase awareness of bias toward people with disabilities in the workplace and develop increasingly effective disability inclusion policies and practices for their organization.

Background: Disability holds a unique position in employment, including corporate social responsibility (CSR) and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Furthermore, contextual shifts in employment, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, make it critical to explore how disability is considered within company strategies.

Objective: Authors reviewed 2020/2021 CSR reports to observe organizational disability inclusion practices and shifts in company approaches to workplace and community initiatives. This analysis helps illuminate what disability inclusion strategies businesses publicize and prioritize, contributing to the growing knowledge of disability inclusion.

Methods: Building from a previous analysis completed in 2018 (Gould et al., 2020), the current review involved content analysis of 129 CSR reports from companies recognized for their disability inclusion efforts.

Results: Results showed a substantial increase in organizations that participated in disability inclusion activities and illuminated potential contextual changes. Additional findings highlight primary disability inclusion strategies as well as emerging practices.

Conclusion: Although there is an increasing interest in including disability within business efforts, there continues to be distinct challenges to advancing disability inclusion overall. By providing insights into disability inclusion approaches, the current study sets a foundation for future research to explore the efficacy and long-term impacts of inclusive practices to enhance disability employment outcomes.

Background: As workplace flexibility can promote employment for people with disabilities, people with disabilities need information about the characteristics of organizations that are more likely to provide this environment.

Objective: Using the 2017 and 2022 Kessler Foundation National Employment & Disability Survey: Supervisor Perspectives, we examine organizational characteristics associated with the flexible work accommodations of working from home, flexible work schedules, and job sharing, prior to and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: We employ a linear probability model to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the provision of flexible workplaces and explore structural (industry, sector, and size) as well as cultural factors (central accommodation fund and upper management commitments) that are related to the flexible workplace practices.

Results: The pandemic increased flexible workplace practices. Different organizational structural and cultural characteristics are noted as correlates to providing greater workplace flexibility.

Conclusion: Our findings can inform job seekers with disabilities to identify organizations that are more likely to offer flexibility. In addition, this information can be useful to vocational rehabilitation professionals in supporting positive employment outcomes for people with disabilities. Employers can also use our findings to guide their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

Background: Research investigating the implicit bias of employers towards individuals with disabilities emphasizes the importance of increased attention to implicit bias in the workplace. Previous research supports the use of trainings to promote awareness and education of implicit and explicit bias toward people with disabilities among employers.

Objective: The purpose of the current study was to better understand employers' stigmatizing attitudes toward individuals with disabilities and develop effective strategies to increase awareness and knowledge related to these negative attitudes.

Methods: Two focus groups of HR professionals were conducted to investigate guidelines and content areas that should be included in training. Data was analyzed using qualitative content analysis (QCA) methodology.

Results: Researchers identified four major themes regarding guidelines for training development: 1) educational information on implicit and explicit bias, 2) disability inclusion information and strategies, 3) consideration of multiple learning modalities, and 4) case studies.

Conclusion: Training interventions incorporating these needs and preferences of HR professionals may more effectively increase awareness of implicit bias in the workplace. Sharing evidence regarding implicit and explicit bias, along with current information on disability inclusion, while using varied instructional strategies may lead to a reduction in disability-related stigma and discrimination in the workplace.

Background: Physical and psychosocial contexts of employment and the quality of the work environments impact both physical and mental health, particularly among individuals with disabilities.

Objective: Given the relationship between health and employment and the need to understand the relationship between quality of work and COVID-19 acquisition risk, this project focused on studying the impacts of job quality following the emergence of the COVID-19 virus.

Method: GLM logistic regression to explore odds ratios of employment quality factors on our dependent variable, contracting COVID.

Results: The overall model was significant, indicating selection of predictor and control variables have an impact on COVID risk (χ²(11)=59.53, p<.001, N=2325). Age and race were significant individual predictors. Finally, among the employment quality variables, only one comparison was significant. Individuals with some but not all markers of employment quality, compared to individuals who were unemployed, were 1.3 times more likely to contract COVID (OR=1.3, p=0.03).

Conclusion: Employment, in light of COVID-19, is full of complexity and nuances. Even more so is the relationship between COVID-19, health, and employment for PWDs. The significant findings from the current study have important implications for the incorporation of employment, and specifically quality employment, as a predictor of physical health among PWDs.