Flexibility and visibility. An examination of the narratives of Norwegian people with disabilities about working part-time

Among the disabled workforce, many are engaged in part-time work. However, research regarding the relationship between disability and part-time work has only partially elucidated how people with disabilities who are in receipt of partial or graded disability pensions perceive and handle the combination of part-time work with their pension payments. This article addresses the narrated strategies employed by people with disabilities in managing part-time employment, drawing on interview data from 10 Norwegian citizens who worked part-time in addition to receiving a graded disability pension. The findings illustrate that flexibility and visibility are specific strategies that our informants implement when health issues and reduced working hours result in weakened connections to the workplace. The article demonstrates how the discourses around paid employment facilitate these strategies. By providing insight into people's narrated experiences of engaging in part-time work with disabilities, the article offers significant recommendations into the conditions necessary for people with disabilities to remain employed while also in receipt of graded disability pensions.     

Employment opportunities for persons with different types of disability

The employment status of groups with different disabilities was analysed as were potentially important moderating factors (work ability, structural and individual factors). A secondary analysis was performed on 4359 respondents with disabilities from Statistics Sweden's Labour Market Investigation. The respondents were divided into six disability groups (communicative-hearing, communicative-speech-reading, communicative-vision, psychological disability, medical disability, physical disability). Logistic regression analyses showed that the probability of being employed was highest among respondents with hearing disabilities and respondents with psychological disabilities were least likely to be employed. Being a woman (very young or old) with only primary education and with partially or very impaired work ability, reduced employment opportunities. Higher education did not increase employment opportunities for respondents with impaired work ability. In summary, the type of disability is essential for employment opportunities, and differences between disability groups cannot be explained by differences in other variables. The moderating factors studied were found to be of equal importance in all groups.     

From equal access to employment to equal career opportunities? Employment practices and work experiences of qualified disabled workers in Japan

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.     

Permanent disability in black mineworkers. A critical analysis

Two-thirds of all occupational permanent disabilities among black workers in South Africa occur in the mining industry. Comparison of compensated permanent disability cases shows that the incidence of permanent disability among black mineworkers is several times higher than that in any other South African industry. Most permanent disabilities sustained in mining fall into the category of 1-5% disability. Trends in the incidence of permanent disability are examined and compensation for disabled black mineworkers is investigated. The basis of workers' compensation legislation involves workers giving up their common-law right to litigate for losses owing to occupational injuries (including pain and suffering) in exchange for guaranteed protection against income losses. However, the evidence suggests that compensation generally does not redress income loss. Most disabled black miners receive compensation payments that are lower than poverty datum levels and high rates of inflation rapidly erode their real value. Since many black workers are repatriated after a disabling accident, the issue of employment becomes crucial. The problems highlighted suggest that compensation legislation requires reform to ameliorate the difficulties faced by disabled black miners and recommendations are made.     

Creating capabilities for societal participation in times of welfare state change? Experiences of people with disabilities in Finland

Societal participation is central for disability policies throughout the world. In a Finnish setting, it is firmly anchored in the welfare state's commitment to create equal capabilities, but it is also dependent on other prerequisites, such as an inclusive labour market. However, these commitments have become both increasingly important through efforts of strengthening the rights of people with disabilities as well as increasingly challenged by crumbling growth and recurrent austerity measures in social policy. This article explores societal participation of people with disabilities in Finland in times of the recent ratification process of the UN CRPD and welfare cuts, and investigates the subjective experiences of societal participation in a changing welfare state context. The data consists of 13 individual qualitative interviews among working-age people with different kinds of disabilities. The findings highlight the importance of state commitment for creating equal capabilities for societal participation and for removing barriers standing in its way. They also suggest that this commitment is becoming both strengthened by the UN CRPD and weakened by the economic crisis and austerity measures and that this may have an undermining effect upon capabilities for persons with disabilities to participate in society.     

“Machetear” : Surviving disability through mendicity in the North of Chile

In Antofagasta, Chile's Second Region, located at the North of the country and possessing the highest salaries throughout the country, there are many people with physical disabilities that resort to mendicity, which is a survival strategy locally known as “machetear.” According to spontaneous sociology, this scene is explained through cultural and moral protagonism that creates “solidarity” towards people with disabilities in Chile. Even though this country has endorsed international human rights treaties, handouts and this generous disposition towards people with disabilities have not been subjected to exclusive problematization within a thematic unit. While reporting the results of a qualitative research carried out in this space, this article analyses the social conditions regarding the possibility of this interaction and identifies the perceptions and dispositions awakened by a disabled body begging within a community. It also makes the denigrating effects of these social responses towards ways of living with a disability visible. The corpus comprises content analysis of the main disability laws, non-participant observations of interactions and 47 semi-structured interviews with people possessing physical disabilities that live through mendicity in the region, which are the key actors as regards disability, and who Chileans who donate alms or not.     

Self-representations on social media. Reproducing and challenging discourses on disability

This article examines self-representations in a social media campaign against the discrimination of people with disabilities. We focus specifically on how these representations are related to various narratives and discourses, and in what ways the representations either adhere to or challenge normative discourses, or whether they offer counter-discourses. Considering that our cultural assumptions are influenced by the representations we are exposed to, we also discuss the possible potential of self-representations for the audience of the campaign. The empirical material consists of a digital activism campaign conducted on Instagram in Sweden that was constructed through self-representations (photos and short texts). The study combines discourse analysis and visual analysis with focus on how the persons present themselves in the campaign, how disability is mentioned and/or displayed, and how a presentation adheres to or challenges a model of understanding disability, such as the medical or social models. We found a diverse set of claims, all with the common goal of acknowledging discrimination, in order to make it visible and bring about change. The narratives identified indicate a variety of strategies for understanding disability and various styles that people adopt to relate to established discourses on disabilities. Through this campaign, the bloggers could find and provide support, but they also took the stage by requesting that the audience listen. The campaign examined in this study can be further understood as an effort and a step towards increased visibility and politicization of disability.     

Barriers and facilitators to societal participation of people with disabilities: A scoping review of studies concerning European countries

The aim of this scoping review is to explore previous scientific studies relating to the scholarly understanding of societal participation of people with disabilities. Six relevant databases within social science were searched using societal participation of people with disabilities, or different combinations thereof, as search words. The criteria for inclusion were: working-age people with disabilities; societal participation; accounting for facilitators or/and barriers of participation; geographical focus on or link to Europe, peer-reviewed studies using quantitative or qualitative methods published in English between January 2012 and December 2013. Thirty-two studies met these inclusion criteria. Each study was analysed relating to four measures: identity of the participator group, type of participation; type of facilitators; type of barriers. The findings show that there is a dominating focus on labour market participation and that societal participation was studied mostly concerning disabled people in general instead of any specific group. The main barriers identified were related to financial factors, attitudes, health issues and unemployment. The most frequently identified facilitators were related to legislation and disability policies, as well as to support from people in close contact with disabled people, attitudes in society and employment opportunities for people with disabilities.     

Recenser et prévenir le handicap,plutôt que lutter contre les discriminations. Les référent.es handicap dans la fonction publique française

Different policies relating to the employment of disabled people coexist in France. They rely on various mechanisms, such as quotas, non-discrimination, professional rehabilitation that corresponds to concurrent, or even antagonist, definitions of disability and participation in the labor market. Based on two original qualitative sociological surveys conducted by semi-structured interviews, this article explores how disability officers grasp, or do not grasp, the different legal tools available to implement employment policies for people with disabilities in public sector work organizations. Despite the strong persistence of an individual, medical, and defective approach to disability in employment, we show that disability officers strive to build a more ambitious, proactive, and systemic policy. They are sensitive to the environmental dimension of disability and to the prevention of disability at work, but do not make reference to the antidiscrimination law and its injunction to pursue equality and inclusion.     

The “employability” of disabled people in France: A labile and speculative notion to be tested against the empirical data from the 2008 “Handicap-Santé” study

Following the passage of the French law of 2005 on equal rights and opportunities, the issue of the “employability” of disabled people became a matter of public discussion. To clarify the debate, the article briefly presents the evolution of this notion and its various meanings, from the social sphere to employment policies. The concept of “employability” is then examined without any preconceived definition using empirical data from the national “Handicap-Santé” (disability-health) survey carried out in 2008 on the general population in France. Five groups illustrate employment patterns, social protection devices and types of disability: remaining employed until retirement; being employed thanks to social systems; leaving employment through “incapacity for work” systems; being employed through one's own resources; and being in sheltered employment or inactive. This construct provides keys to understand how “employability” manifests itself. The results show that, unlike the vision of employability that is focused on individual characteristics and promoted by employment policies in Europe, addressing employability in the domain of disability is only meaningful when considering individuals in their environments. The results also show that disability systems encourage forms of employability but still appear to favour access to inactivity through “incapacity for work”.     

From “ineducability” to “rare disabilities”. Evolution and emergence of political categories involved in shaping the French medico-social sector

In France, a notion is currently the focus of a number of political debates, that of “rare disabilities”, a notion that does not seem to be used, or to a limited extent, in other countries. The aim of this article is to return to the history of this notion in France: when and why did it appear? What issue and what population does this category designate? To set the issues related to “rare disabilities” in the context of the French disability policy, the first section of the article traces the development of the medico-social sector at the end of the 1940s, on the basis of the notion of educability, superseding that of incurability on one hand, and the categorization of the populations of disabled persons in terms of impairments on the other hand. The second part shows how in this context, the issue of children with several impairments emerges and how, under the impetus of parents and health professionals, distinctions are formed within the category of multiple disabilities between “multihandicap”, “plurihandicap” and “polyhandicap”. The third section traces the appearance of the term “rare disabilites” in the context of a political decentralization in 1986, the construction of a new political and administrative category and the fluctuations of its definition, which currently falls short of the challenges raised by this complex form of disability. The fourth section shows how this new category became from 1998 on, a performative and pragmatic category leading to the creation of specific and original modes of care that challenge the traditional institutional approach of disability in a context of reform of the French disability policy. The article is based on an exploratory research that has consisted in an analysis of grey literature (legal texts, associations and working groups reports) concerning the notion of “rare disabilities”.     

When benefits become barriers. The significance of welfare services on transition into employment in Norway

Historically, many individuals with disabilities in Norway faced exclusion from participation in mainstream society. A shift in disability policy from an emphasis on segregation to integration started taking place in the late 1960s, and “full participation and equality” became the overall objective from the early 1980s. In parallel, the government has developed and implemented several welfare services and programs to enhance this integration, particularly in the labor market. Based on in-depth interviews with persons with mobility disabilities, the article addresses their experiences of transitioning into mainstream employment, supported by, and navigating through a vast array of welfare services. Born in the 1970s and early 1980s, these study participants represent so-to-speak the first generation of integrated people with disabilities. Their stories are important when exploring how and to what extent the policy of integration enhanced labor market participation. Applying a structural perspective, the article discusses why welfare service delivery processes may become barriers along the road into mainstream employment. Informed by Fraser's (2003) “perspectival dualism,” it outlines how insufficient dimensions of redistribution and recognition impede a smooth transition into working life for persons with mobility disabilities, turning welfare services and programs into barriers.     

Work expectations of adults with developmental disabilities

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.     

A wheelchair in the Cape Flats (South Africa). Negotiating one's mobility and identity with a locomotor disability

As a tool for social participation and inclusion, the wheelchair constitutes an interesting entry point to study the everyday experience of people with physical disabilities. This paper offers to discuss how people learn to use the wheelchairs, how they move with them, and how the chair influences their inclusion. Based on an eighteen-month ethnography in a Coloured township in Cape Town (South Africa), such a reading of the wheelchair calls for a relational and intersectional approach of citizenship. Defined broadly as one's relationship to their body, their environment, their relatives, and the State, citizenship is experienced through a web of social, institutional, and material relationships. This approach ultimately raises issues of inclusion, belonging, and stigmatisation. After presenting the context of the research, I discuss the notions of active citizenship, modern citizenship and the right to the city. The conclusion comes back to the ideas of relational and intersectional citizenship as a way forward for research in disability studies and in South Africa.     

The employment policy and vocational activity support system for people with intellectual disabilities in Poland

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.     

Americans with disabilities act: recent and pending u.s. Supreme court decisions and implications for spine professionals

This article highlights recent and pending United States Supreme Court cases interpreting employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and discusses their implications for spine professionals. The implications include how Spine readers approach evaluations of employees and job applicants with disabilities and workplace accommodations in light of the recent decisions. The cases pending before the Supreme Court involve orthopedic impairments and the "reasonableness" of certain workplace accommodations. Increasingly, spine professionals will be called on to assist in the analysis of these issues. This article will familiarize Spine readers with the legal interpretations under the Americans with Disabilities Act of "disability," "mitigating measures," "qualified individual," and "reasonable accommodations." It illustrates the ways in which spine professionals may be called on to help interpret and apply qualification and safety standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act to assist individuals, employers, attorneys, and other stakeholders in the employment of people with disabilities.     

Organisational environment and challenging behaviour in services for people with intellectual disabilities: A review of the literature

Background

This literature review explores the relationship between the organisational environment of residential disability services and challenging behaviour in people with intellectual disabilities (ID) using Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory as a theoretical framework.

Disability art and culture: A model for imaginative ways to integrate the community

This article suggests a turn to disabled people's formations of disability culture, as expressed in the arts, for new ways to imagine community integration. As I look to the arts, I examine not only the representations disabled artists create, but the art-making and arts-presenting processes themselves. I illustrate this argument by analyzing innovations in the integration of people with disabilities in professional concert dance in two American companies: AXIS Dance Company and Kinetic Light.     

Approaching the measurement of disability prevalence: The case of Zambia

There exists no single definition of disability. The multidimensionality of disability demands that more complex, flexible measures that will capture disability in all its manifestations be developed and adapted. The measurement of disability prevalence must be seen in light of the purpose that these data are collected for example, provision of services, assessment of the level of functioning in the population or equalisation of opportunities and inclusion of people with disabilities in society. Any reported disability prevalence rate is dependent both on the definition or aspect of disability that is being targeted and on the intended purpose for collecting disability statistics.Results from a national, representative survey of living conditions among people with disabilities in Zambia based, in part, on the work of the Washington Group on Disability Statistics (WG) that operationalises a functional approach to disability are presented and contrasted with historical census data to illustrate how a flexible approach to the measurement of disability is better suited to the multiple purposes of collecting disability statistics and to the diversity of disability in a population.     

Take-up and non-take-up of vocational rehabilitation in the financial responsibility of the German Federal Employment Agency: The role of employment status

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.