Introduction Despite persistently low employment rates among working-age adults with disabilities, prior research on employer practices and attitudes toward workers with disabilities paints a generally rosy picture of successfully accommodated workers in a welcoming environment. Findings from previous studies might have been biased because of either employer self-selection or social desirability, yielding non-representative or artificially positive conclusions. Methods In this study, a novel approach was used to survey human resource professionals and supervisors working for employers known or reputed to be resistant to complying with the ADA’s employment provisions. Attendees of employer-requested ADA training sessions were asked to assess various possible reasons that employers in general might not hire, retain, or accommodate workers with disabilities and to rate strategies and policy changes that might make it more likely for employers to do so. Results As cited by respondents, the principal barriers to employing workers with disabilities are lack of awareness of disability and accommodation issues, concern over costs, and fear of legal liability. With regard to strategies employers might use to increase hiring and retention, respondents identified increased training and centralized disability and accommodation expertise and mechanisms. Public policy approaches preferred by respondents include no-cost external problem-solving, subsidized accommodations, tax breaks, and mediation in lieu of formal complaints or lawsuits. Conclusions Findings suggest straightforward approaches that employers might use to facilitate hiring and retention of workers with disabilities, as well as new public programs or policy changes that could increase labor force participation among working-age adults who have disabilities.

Findings suggest approaches to assist job-seekers to make decisions about disclosing or discussing their disability, present themselves in a straight-forward, disability-positive manner, and find satisfying work based on their skills and interests.

Multidisciplinary AT training not only reaches core audiences of disability-related professionals, but has expanded to include new audiences. Special and general educator training may be a model for inclusion. Although distance learning can reach diverse audiences, faculty in training programmes also emphasised hands-on training. AT training programmes experience considerable turnover and remain vulnerable to funding losses.

No abstract

This article describes a longitudinal case study of 11 independent living centers (ILCs) that received funding in the early 1990s from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for the purpose of improving service systems for people with disabilities. The article examines the changes that occurred in the organizational networks of each of the 11 ILCs over the funding period. Changes in specific organizational partners, exchanges of resources between the ILCs and their partners, and perceptions of the ILCs by their partners are analyzed. Particular attention is given to changes in partnerships related to health-care and revenue-generating activities. These issues are addressed in an effort to understand (a) in what ways the conventional ILC model might be challenged by the influx of external funding and (b) how the 11 ILCs managed to adapt to the funding in a manner that was conducive to their philosophies and missions.