Australia’s Disability Employment Services Program: Participant Perspectives on Factors Influencing Access to Work

Disability employment programs play a key role in supporting people with disability to overcome barriers to finding and maintaining work. Despite significant investment, ongoing reforms to Australia’s Disability Employment Services (DES) are yet to lead to improved outcomes. This paper presents findings from the Improving Disability Employment Study (IDES): a two-wave survey of 197 DES participants that aims to understand their perspectives on factors that influence access to paid work. Analysis of employment status by type of barrier indicates many respondents experience multiple barriers across vocational (lack of qualifications), non-vocational (inaccessible transport) and structural (limited availability of jobs, insufficient resourcing) domains. The odds of gaining work decreased as the number of barriers across all domains increased with each unit of barrier reported (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.07, 1.38). Unemployed respondents wanted more support from employment programs to navigate the welfare system and suggest suitable work, whereas employed respondents wanted support to maintain work, indicating the need to better tailor service provision according to the needs of job-seekers. Combined with our findings from the participant perspective, improving understanding of these relationships through in-depth analysis and reporting of DES program data would provide better evidence to support current DES reform and improve models of service delivery.

Review of employment and disability: bibliographic analysis

Purpose The social and work inclusion of people with disabilities is an important area of public action and research today. Future trends in the economy and lifestyle represent new challenges for the inclusion of disabled people. This paper aims to provide a bibliometric analysis of the growing amount of research publications currently dealing with problems associated with people with disabilities in employment. The papers are analysed to gain a perspective on any changes in the field. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the analysis is conducted using a literature review and bibliometric analysis techniques in particular. The bibliographic source supporting this analysis resulted from a search of Scopus using Disability, Employment and Work as search terms, which yielded 750 publications spanning the previous nine years. VOSviewer was applied to facilitate the analysis. Findings The findings indicate that up until 2016, the conversation revolved around health and employment, and from 2017 onwards the research has become more focused on the employment of people with disabilities. Socioeconomic factors affecting people with disabilities appear as one of the causes impairing their inclusion, such as the different intellectual disabilities curtailing their employment and education for work. Research limitations/implications This analysis limited itself to only one database and open access articles. Therefore, further research is needed with a larger bibliographic base covering other aspects related to the future of disability employment. Practical implications This review may serve as a valuable source of information for researchers for further investigations in this area. And to aid in the development of effective policies to address existing social stereotypes. Originality/value This research illustrates, through the use of VOSviewer, the present studies in the area of disability and employment and sets the foundations for further research.

Working in disability employment: An interpretative phenomenological study of experiences of people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia

Aim To understand how employees with schizophrenia in disability employment interpret their work experience. Method Nine people with schizophrenia were interviewed. Data were analysed with the interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results All participants regarded themselves as ‘persons with mental illness’. Some participants developed their mental illness identity by realising that working without accommodations is difficult. Although participants found working in the current company comfortable because the supervisors provided appropriate accommodations, they were dissatisfied with low salary. A proportion of the participants felt dissatisfaction with the menial work, which led to low levels of self-esteem as they viewed non-disability employment of higher value. In addition, the present study noted a difference between self-labelling and labelling by others; although participants regarded themselves as ‘persons with mental illness’, they felt reluctant to be viewed as such by others. Most of the participants wanted to work in non-disability employment in future for financial and personal reasons, such as to increase self-esteem. Conclusion It is imperative that benefits and other issues in disability employment for people with psychosocial disability relating to mental illness are explored more broadly in future research. Further, employers must create healthy workplaces, for all employees regardless of disability can benefit from it.

Exploring the Basics

The six activities in this chapter are designed to help students make discoveries for themselves. Activities include computer searches and class discussion, as well as working in small groups, watching documentaries, and debriefing. The first activity is about language used to describe persons with disabilities, as this will help students feel less tongue-tied during discussions and raise awareness of language issues as they go through other activities. Next is an exploration of the bidirectional connection among economics and disability, employment, and nondiscrimination laws. One activity introduces intersectionality by having students researching their own identities in conjunction with disability (there is more on intersectionality in Chapter 9).

The role of social enterprises in facilitating labour market integration for people with disabilities: A convenient deflection from policy mainstreaming?

Policymakers have increasingly embraced social enterprises as a vehicle to create job opportunities for the disadvantaged. However, there is limited research on social enterprises in the context of disability in relation to labour market integration. Drawing on the perspectives of representatives of work integration social enterprises and people with disabilities employed in these enterprises (n=21), this study examines whether and how work integration social enterprises promote inclusion for people with disabilities, and also explores the role of WISEs in enabling people with disabilities to transition into open employment. Thematic analysis revealed three key emergent themes: Cocooned inclusion but not transition; Reinforced normative demarcation; and WISEs as a deflection from institutionalizing proactive disability policy measures. This article argues that, although WISEs were able to provide job opportunities for people with disabilities, their purported function in enabling disabled people to transition into open employment remains constrained by factors beyond their control including prevailing norms and the absence of proactive disability employment measures. This article cautions against the over-romanticisation of WISEs as the primary means to ensure the rights of people with disabilities to participate in the labour market. Implications on disability employment policies in relation to social enterprises are discussed.

Will Disabled Workers Be Winners or Losers in the Post-COVID-19 Labour Market?

Workplace inflexibility contributes to the higher rates of job loss and unemployment experienced by disabled people. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries already had significant disability employment gaps. Based on evidence from previous recessions, the global recession resulting from the pandemic is likely to have a severer and longer-lasting impact on the employment of disabled workers compared with non-disabled workers. In the UK, there is already evidence that the disability employment gap has widened since the pandemic. On the other hand, the pandemic initiated increased access to home-working, a change in working arrangements that may prove beneficial to disabled workers employed in desk-based roles. Home-working can increase the accessibility of employment and support work retention for disabled workers, yet pre-pandemic many employers had withheld it. Studies of employees’ and employers’ experiences of home-working during the pandemic have indicated a desire to retain access to home-working in the future. A permanent cultural shift to increased access to home-working would help address the disability employment gap for desk-based workers. However, disabled workers are over-represented in jobs not conducive to home-working, and in sectors that have been hardest hit by business closures during the pandemic, so the position of many disabled workers is likely to remain precarious.

Educational Policy and Employment Opportunity of People with Disabilities in India - A Study

The transformation from agriculture to industrial business has led to radical socio-economic shifts, while the related employment issues have taken place. Certain problems have been illustrated by a critical view of attain the education,employability, patterns and political outlook for people with disabilities. While paradigms in their employment facilities have changed dramatically, a number of shortages and obstacles make a more concentrated and systematic effort to achieve maximum benefits essential for them. Hence the government taking more steps for these people those who struggling for primary education and their employment opportunity. The educational policies is the supportive stone of their employment opportunity of differently abled people and this lack of education is the informal influence of them become a self-employer in the environment for their survival. This study indicates the educational policy of differently abled people and various ministries allocated for the educated and uneducated person with disability employment opportunities in India.

Diamond in the rough? An “empty review” of research into “neurodiversity” and a road map for developing the inclusion agenda

PurposeThe aims of the paper were to highlight the dearth of applied practitioner research concerning the expression of neurodiversity at work and develop an epistemological framework for a future research agenda.Design/methodology/approachA systematic empty review protocol was employed, with three a priori research questions, inquiring as to the extent of neurodiversity research within mainstream work psychology, psychology in general and lastly within cross-disciplinary academic research. The results of the final search were quality checked and categorized to illustrate where studies relevant to practice are currently located.FindingsThe academic literature was found to be lacking in contextualized, practical advice for employers or employees. The location and foci of extracted studies highlighted a growing science-practitioner gap.Research limitations/implicationsThe research focused on common neurominority conditions such as autism and dyslexia; it is acknowledged that the neurodiversity definition itself is broader and more anthropological in nature. A need for a comprehensive research agenda is articulated, and research questions and frameworks are proposed.Practical implicationsGuidance is given on applying disability accommodation to both individual and organizational targets.Social implicationsThe disability employment gap is unchanged since legislation was introduced. The neurodiversity concept is no longer new, and it is time for multi-disciplinary collaborations across science and practice to address the questions raised in this paper.Originality/valueThis paper offers an original analysis of the neurodiversity paradox, combining systematic inquiry with a narrative synthesis of the extant literature. The conceptual clarification offers clear directions for researchers and practitioners.