Analysis of industrial tasks as a tool for the inclusion of people with disabilities in the work market

Abstract

This article describes the application of a model for analyzing industrial tasks that was developed to identify jobs that could potentially be filled by people with disabilities (DP) and to serve as a guideline for a company hiring policy. In Brazil, Law No. 8213/91 makes it obligatory to hire DP based on quotas that are established according to the number of employees in a public and private company. Using a set of methods and techniques based on ergonomic work analysis and on occupational therapy, we sought to build a model to indicate the skills required to perform industrial tasks. The model was applied at 19 workstations at a Brazilian aircraft manufacturer in 2002. The task supervisor and the operator performing the task were interviewed, the work activity was filmed, a kinesiological analysis was done, the task was observed and a checklist was applied to help recognize and systematize the skills involved in performing the job task. The last step consisted of correlating the skills required to perform the task to the potential skills of the various types of disability. It was found that 100% of the jobs could be filled by workers with low-level paraplegia, 89% by workers with general paraplegia, 0% with low-level tetraplegia, 47% with auditory impairment, 42% with hemiplegia, 68% with upper limb amputees wearing adequate prostheses, and 89% handicapped wheelchair users. The company hired 14 DP based on the results of this model. The model proved adequate for analyzing industrial tasks with a view to the inclusion of DP, and it can be applied to other sectors of industrial production.

Workplace accommodation to people with disabilities: a case study in civil construction

“…Thus, there was no prior analysis of accessibility conditions, nor of the demands of their jobs, nor of these people's potential, resulting adaptation problems, occupational accidents and economic damage to the image and social awareness of the company, as well as psychosocial problems in relation to PD (9). In a survey conducted by Chi et al (10), of the 540 case studies analyzed, in only 3 of them did employers conduct an analysis of the tasks and the functional abilities of workers with disabilities for job accommodation.…”

Restrição Laboral: um conceito em construção na designação e vivência da incapacidade no trabalho

“…Como facilitadores enfatizam a avaliação e adequação das condições e da organização do trabalho, o acolhimento e apoio por parte dos pares de trabalho, a cooperação e o trabalho em equipe, a viabilização do retorno progressivo, o acompanhamento do processo e participação ativa do sujeito e as condições de acolhimento para o RT. As condições de acolhimento são entendidas como as condições de suporte, presentes no contexto do trabalho, que funcionam como apoio por parte de todos os envolvidos: pares e níveis hierárquicos diferenciados (Ramos et al, 2008;Simonelli, Camarotto, 2008;MacEachen et al, 2010;Tjulin et al, 2011;Toldrá et al, 2010;Dunstan, MacEachen, 2013;Lancman et al, 2013a;.…”

“…Já como elementos dificultadores apontam a estrutura da legislação brasileira vigente, os conflitos nas relações interpessoais com chefias e pares de trabalho, a falta de cooperação e acolhimento dos pares de trabalho e a impossibilidade de remodelação das condições e da organização do trabalho durante o processo de retorno ao trabalho (Simonelli, Camarotto, 2008;Takahashi et al, 2010b;Toldrá et al, 2010;Canal, Cruz, 2013;Lancman et al, 2013a).…”

Task Analysis for a Food Processing Facility: A Social Enterprise for Persons from Underemployed Populations

“…The task-oriented approach is neutral in that it does not distinguish between disabled and non-disabled people. Researchers who perform task-oriented analysis typically do not include people with mental illnesses in their research because the idiosyncratic nature of mental illness does not allow for forecasting of worker performance (Barkway, 2006;Simonelli & Camarotto, 2008). Person-oriented analysis considers factors of the person such as motivation and interests.…”

“…Automated skills, procedural skills, representational skills, decision making skills, and strategies represent an ascending hierarchy of cognitive skills in which each level builds upon the skills of the levels below it (Seamster, et al, 1997). Simonelli and Camarotto (2008) conducted a task-oriented analysis of automated industrial jobs that were to be filled by people with physical, mental, hearing, and visual disabilities. They conducted their analysis in three stages; first analyzing the tasks, then studying the activity, and finally creating descriptions of the jobs that would be filled by people with disabilities.…”