Barriers to employment: voices of physically disabled rural women in Thailand

Employment is an essential activity that can generate income for people with disabilities, but very little is known about the interplay between disabled women, family and paid jobs. This article, therefore, sets forth a qualitative method for examining barriers that affect the employment opportunities of physically disabled women. Findings drawn from face-to-face interviews with 20 physically disabled women who live in rural poverty in Thailand clearly indicate that physical barriers from built environment, personal limitations; attitudinal barriers from the non-disabled community, especially employers; and over-protection from families limit their employment opportunities. Despite showing their interests in the labour market, these women are still left behind and trapped in rural poverty. The author argues that this situation is due to the non-disabled community ignoring the potential of these women. The author also recommends that the government of Thailand, NGOs and disability organisations should introduce strong tailored interventions and a multifaceted approach to address the medical, social and legal aspects of restricted participation in the labour market in order to improve the employment prospects of women with physical disabilities.     

What Disability Civil Rights Cannot Do: employment and political economy

The Americans with Disabilities Act is both a liberal civil rights bill and a labour economics bill meant to increase the employment of disabled persons. It identifies the source of unemployment in discriminatory attitudes of employers and physical barriers in the work environment, and promotes inclusion through the establishment of regulations that are intended to create 'equal opportunity' in the labour market. Such liberal reforms primarily focus on 'irrational' discriminatory attitudes. Operating within an individualist framework, civil rights have not given sufficient attention to structural barriers, which 'rational' business practices, the economic system and class power relationships erect. This paper will both micro- and macro-economic realities of US capitalism, which directly impede disabled peoples' employment and perpetuate a disabling society. The failure of rights legislation to increase disabled people's employment exposes the contradictions of promoting equal opportunity in a class-based (unequal) society.     

The Role of Access Groups in Facilitating Accessible Environments for Disabled People

This paper considers the contrasting ways in which disabled people seek to overturn socio-attitudinal, political and physical barriers to their mobility and access requirements in the built environment. In particular, the paper documents how disabled people are attempting to influence the form and content of local authority access practices and policies in the UK, through the context and contours of access groups. I begin by briefly outlining some of the key factors inhibiting and facilitating disabled people organising as effective political groupings, relating the material to access issues in the built environment. Then, using case studies of two contrasting access groups, the paper explores some of the practical barriers, problems and opportunities connected to disabled people's activities in seeking to influence local authority access policies and practices. I conclude by discussing how some of the wider structural and agency-level constraints on disabled people's political and policy interventions in access issues might be removed.     

Interviewing Non-disabled People About Their Disability-related Attitudes: seeking methodologies

Within the field of disability studies there has been a concentration upon the representation of disabled people's experiences within a social context. However, research into non-disabled people's perspectives on disability and impairment has traditionally been based upon a psychologically-driven individualist model of disability which sees disabled people uncritically as 'the problem'. In this apparent epistemological divide, little work has been done on the exploration of non-disabled people's perspectives from a social model angle. This paper outlines a current study of the formation of such perspectives, and specifically explores the methodological conditioners of such an enquiry.     

Disabled people, the reserve army of labour and welfare reform

This paper is concerned with explaining why in contemporary society there has been a number of changes to income maintenance and labour market policy for disabled people. Taking a regulation approach theoretical framework it engages with the debate about whether disabled people can be considered to be part of the reserve army of labour. Rejecting previous broad-brush approaches that seem to suggest that all disabled people are part of the reserve army, it argues that the policy changes have been aimed at reconstructing non-employed disabled people as an important part of the reserve army in a period when labour markets are becoming tighter. In this sense disabled people are crucial to New Labour's regulation of neo-liberal accumulation that is structured through a contradiction between economic stability and increasing participation in paid employment.     

Barriers to employment as experienced by disabled people: a qualitative analysis in Calgary and Regina,Canada

Public policies stress greater inclusion of disabled people in the labour market and suggest ways to implement accommodative measures to these ends. Often missing from this literature is the experiences of disabled people in labour markets. This article reports results from a qualitative study conducted in 2005 and 2006 consisting of one‐to‐one and focus group interviews with 56 disabled individuals participating in employment training programmes in Calgary and Regina, Canada. Findings suggest the presence of workplace and employer discrimination and labelling as primary factors impeding respondents’ success in securing and maintaining employment in the labour market. The 56 respondents provide strong evidence that perceptions of disability have a greater impact on their inability to maintain and secure employment than does the lack of accommodative practices and measures in the workplace.     

Navigating employability from the bottom up

ABSTRACT

Research focusing on young people’s career trajectories has emphasised ‘graduate employability’ with much less attention being afforded to the employability strategies used by disadvantaged youth, including the social, political and labour market contexts in which these emerge. This study explores how young people enrolled in entry-level, vocational training courses in Australia attempt to enhance their employability. Interviews explored perceptions of individual employability, the strategies utilised to improve employability, and the economic, personal and employment consequences of these strategies. Three main employability strategies were identified: gaining qualifications to meet employment expectations; securing work experience in a competitive labour market; and addressing economic and social challenges to secure and sustain employment. The study reveals how the dominant narratives of employability in education and employment policy are misaligned with the economic, social and labour market challenges faced by disadvantaged job-seekers with respect to notions of career and ‘fit’ between the individual and the labour market. Policy responses need to take account of the diverse ‘bottom up’ experiences and circumstances of different cohorts of young people.     

A Comparison of Federal Laws Toward Disabled and Racial/Ethnic Groups in the USA

This paper asks if federal legislation for disabled people differs from that for racial/ethnic groups in the United States. It compares the history and content of federal legislation which affects each group, and it compares the ways existing laws for each group handle the issues of employment discrimination, integration in education, access, and equal protection under the law. It shows that there are clear differences in content and coverage for each group in types of discrimination permitted under existing federal laws.     

Focusing on Disability and Access in the Built Environment

This paper provides a documentation and discussion of the diverse experiences that different disabled people have with regards to access in the built environment. It begins by outlining the various ways in which disabled people's access needs and requirements are articulated in public policies and practices towards the development and regulation of the built environment. As the material indicates, disabled people's needs are poorly articulated and/or represented in the design and development of the built environment while the regulatory controls which oversee disabled people's access are weak. In the second part of the paper, disabled people's values, attitudes and practices towards access in the built environment are discussed by referring to the findings of focus group research. The material shows that many disabled people feel estranged and oppressed by facets of the built environment and generally feel powerless to do anything about it. We conclude by suggesting a number of ways of interconnecting the design and implementation of public policy towards the built environment with the daily lived experiences of disabled people.     

Sheltered and Supported Employment in the 1990s: the experiences of disabled workers in the UK

Sheltered and supported employment are important areas of social policy provision for disabled people in the UK, but they have received little attention in the sociological literature on disability. This omission is addressed by developing a framework for understanding the state's employment policy for disabled people. It is argued that recent changes in sheltered and supported employment provision must be understood in the context of broader labour market restructuring. This argument is illustrated by an exploratory survey of workers in both programmes. The findings suggest that sheltered and supported employment tend to prioritise the needs of employers over those of disabled workers. In concluding, it is argued that an adequate approach to the employment needs of disabled people needs to go beyond micro-policy debates on the relative merits of existing employment programmes and, instead, engage at a broader level of societal change.     

Disabled people's attitudes toward other impairment groups: a hierarchy of impairments

This article seeks to explore, through the literature, the notion that a hierarchy of impairment exists from the perspectives of both disabled and non-disabled people. The literature suggests that disabled people, like non-disabled people, do not always wish to be associated with other impairment groups for a variety of complex reasons, including competing for scarce allocations of funding/resources, sexual attraction, stigma, etc. The article concludes that further research is required in relation to disabled people's attitudes toward other disabled people, in general, and other impairment groups. Such research would expand our knowledge with respect to the degree to which disabled people view themselves as a homogenous in-group, as a set of separate impairment groups, or viewing impairment as only one facet of identity. These findings would help the disability movement to achieve greater inclusiveness amongst different impairments.     

Enterprising? Disabled? The status and potential for disabled people’s microenterprise in South Korea

This article explores the position, potential and scope for self-employment and microenterprise for disabled South Koreans. The chronic barriers experienced in disabled people gaining paid work suggest that self-employment and enterprise might offer a good alternative to paid work. The self-determined nature of running a microenterprise has been shown to connect with disabled people who may not conform to standardised notions of body and brain that underpin many mainstream work contexts. Despite this promise, several barriers continue to beset disabled people’s access to micro-enterprise activity; barriers ranging from Confucian precepts, to employment protections that are geared largely towards paid employment and to the lack of training, finance and business support for disabled people starting up and sustaining microenterprise in Korea. The extension of legal protections, meaningful start-up subsidies, better business support and bridges between paid work and microenterprise are all seen as important policy correctives that would better support disabled people.     

‘A frog in a well’: the exclusion of disabled people from work in Cambodia

Based on ethnographic research conducted in north‐west Cambodia in 2000–2001, this paper examines why disabled people experience systematic marginalisation in the labour market. Although there are no official data on the relationship between disability and employment status in Cambodia, this research suggests that disabled people are more likely than their able‐bodied counterparts to be unemployed, in low status occupations, earn less or be out of the labour market altogether. Consequently, disabled people are more likely to live in poverty, experience social isolation and poor mental health. I argue that disabled people’s social status effectively shapes their work patterns through (mis)conceptions that associate ‘disability’ with ‘inability’ to work and to be employable. This paper illustrates how geographical processes fix disabled people in their socio‐spatial place, which together with ideological and structural inequalities distinguish and entrench their poverty from that of other social groups.     

Developing Social Firms in the UK: a contribution to identifying good practice

Social firms and related enterprises are developing rapidly in the UK as a means of providing employment for disabled people. This study examined the kind of enterprise that will best meet the aspirations of disabled people. A telephone survey identified the range of enterprises describing themselves as social firms, and examined their develop ment and operation. Alongside the survey, focus groups with disabled people and interviews with carers explored perspectives on the values that should underpin social firms. The results suggest that indicators of good practice include: user/worker participation in the firm's development and operation; the availability of expert advice to enable informed choice about payment, with payment at the minimum wage rates or higher for those who choose this; opportunities for workers to develop to their full potential; a workforce comprising disabled and non-disabled workers; the involvement of carers and local socio-economic agencies in developing the social firm.     

Vocational rehabilitation of disabled people in Germany: a systems-theoretical perspective

Avoiding inequality of opportunities based on individual characteristics such as sex, race or disability is of central concern for social policy. One of the most important aspects of social inclusion is integration into working life. In Germany, a comprehensive system of vocational rehabilitation has been developed aiming to integrate disabled people into the labour market. This paper contributes to a better understanding of exclusion and inclusion mechanisms related to employment participation of disabled people through the application of concepts from systems theory. We identify the societal part systems influencing these mechanisms and structure them using a multi-level approach.     

A Critical Evaluation of the Contradictions for Disabled Workers Arising from the Emergence of the Flexible Labour Market in Britain

In Britain, as in all industrialised countries 'paid work' or employment is central to the economy of the state. This perspective raises important implications for theories of disability and work, and for further research in this area. This paper attempts to provide a critical evaluation of the contradictions arising from the flexible labour market for disabled workers and how the concept of the Disabled State has been eroded along with notions of disabled people as the 'deserving poor'. Policies now demonstrate a commitment to a labour market free from restrictive practices and regulation. It appears that new technologies and specific personal communication skills, initiative, flexibility and adaptability will play an increasing part in new labour working trends. In short, theories of disability and work must change focus from 'production' to 'process'.     

International guidelines and the inclusion of disabled people. The Ugandan story

Uganda has made much progress towards including disabled people in its mainstream development, particularly in the political agenda. The exact process by which this has been achieved and the relationship between this and international guidelines and legislation are not known. This study undertakes to examine this from two specific perspectives: (1) How do international documents relevant to disabled people relate to national legislation in Uganda? (2) What can this comparison, together with the perceptions of stakeholders, tell us about how the legislation and services could improve? International legislation and Ugandan legislation is reviewed and compared. Data from 5 semi‐structured key informant interviews and 6 focus group discussions involving a total of 38 people are collected and analysed. The themes arising from the data are related to the documents, legislation, policies and other relevant literature. The results examine the barriers to service provision; the role of change; the importance of representation; policy and legislation issues; and the effects of devolution. Five specific findings relate to how legislation and services can improve: more resources to increase access for disabled people; strong leadership and collaboration between Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) funding bodies and governments; awareness raising and training; representation from all impairment groups; and raising the profile of disabled people through further legislation.     

Losing Ground: Social Policy and Disabled People in Great Britain, 1980-90

This paper reviews some of the major themes of social policy in Britain over the past decade and examines in detail the impact on disabled people in three major areas: employment; income and social security provision; and the organisation and delivery of health and social welfare services. It will be argued that, despite some superficial similarities between the demands of disabled people and the rhetoric of the New Right for reductions in dependency and control by the state, the dominant policy themes of free market forces, privatisation and reductions in the scope of welfare state services have not served disabled people's interests well. Moreover, attempts to “protect” disabled people within a much reduced welfare state have not been effective and have in any case had the unwelcome consequence of increasing the scrutiny and control exercised by professionals and others. This stands in contrast to the alternative policy agenda articulated by disabled people themselves, which stresses autonomy, integration, an end to discrimination, and rights—to equal chances in employment, to an adequate level of income, and to services which enhance personal choice and facilitate independent living.     

A review of the participation of disabled persons in the labour force: the Kenyan context

This paper presents a review of the challenges that disabled people experience in participating in the Kenyan labour market. It draws on existing literature and on a narrative of the experiences of one disabled academic in a Kenyan university to highlight some of the forms of discrimination that disabled people have to cope with in their workplaces. The goal is to further our understanding of the nature of barriers that disabled people face in the work environment in Kenya, with a view of exploring ways of addressing those barriers and developing some recommendations for improvement. It is clear from the interview with a disabled academic that, despite strides made by the Kenyan government in terms of enacting the Disability Act, which aims at boosting disabled people’s participation in employment, there is still a big gap between the law and its implementation. What is needed is constitutional change and implementation of the existing law at all levels, as well as provision of resources to support this change.     

The experience of disabled and non-disabled students on professional practice placements in the United Kingdom

There are limited comparisons between the experience of disabled students in higher education and their non-disabled peers, particularly on practice placements. This article presents the results of such a comparison, across six professional disciplines in one UK university. The results revealed that both disabled and non-disabled students reported positive placement experiences and also similar difficulties. Such difficulties were exacerbated for some disabled students, however, including as a consequence of the attitudes of others to disability. Recommendations for practice are identified that aim to enhance the placement experience of all students and to remove barriers to access.