Barriers and facilitators to employment as reported by people with physical disabilities: An across disability type analysis

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Extant research has reported on the factors associated with seeking and maintaining employment for individuals with different types of physical disabilities, such as cerebral palsy (CP), multiple sclerosis (MS), and spinal cord injuries (SCI). Some of these factors are barriers and others are facilitators. However, research has not determined whether the inhibiting and facilitating employment experiences of people with physical disabilities are similar across type of physical disability. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to compare the employment experiences of people with physical disabilities with three different disabilities including CP, MS, and SCI to determine whether these employment experiences are similar. METHODS: Homogenous focus groups were conducted with individuals with CP, MS, and SCI concerning their employment experiences. These 18 focus groups were conducted telephonically, audio recorded, and lasted approximately 60 minutes each. Data from each disability type was analyzed separately and across disability type. RESULTS: Two themes were common among participants in the three disability types: 1) Health and 2) Barriers to Overcome. However, there were differences among the disability types within these themes. Some of these differences were unique to MS. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a perspective on working with CP, MS, or SCI informed directly by individuals living with these disabilities, whether they were employed or unemployed, and gives a voice to the employment experiences of the individuals. The findings present information on the similarities and differences that individuals with various physical disabilities face when working.

Living with a long-term health condition and seeking paid work: qualitative systematic review and thematic synthesis

“…Within the workplace, even when accessibility was made possible through devices, malfunctioning of technologies such as lifts impacted on job accessibility [43]. Transportation to work was often problematic, particularly for people with a spinal cord injury [20,42], multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy [20], and traumatic brain injury [44] due to restrictions on ability to drive. To be a viable opportunity, a potential job needed to be geographically accessible and able to be reached within a reasonable amount of time [20].…”

“…Transportation to work was often problematic, particularly for people with a spinal cord injury [20,42], multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy [20], and traumatic brain injury [44] due to restrictions on ability to drive. To be a viable opportunity, a potential job needed to be geographically accessible and able to be reached within a reasonable amount of time [20]. The necessity of using public transport or relying on friends and family introduced concerns regarding timeliness and reliability, particularly for those who resided in rural areas [20,42,43].…”

“…To be a viable opportunity, a potential job needed to be geographically accessible and able to be reached within a reasonable amount of time [20]. The necessity of using public transport or relying on friends and family introduced concerns regarding timeliness and reliability, particularly for those who resided in rural areas [20,42,43]. In the face of transport challenges, some people opted to look for roles where they could work from home [42].…”

“…Other systematic reviews on the topic of gaining or maintaining paid work have similarly focused on either a specific condition [18] or specific country [19]. Furthermore, studies that focus on retaining work for people who are already employed tend to emphasise what is able to be done in the workplace [17], while one of the key issues for gaining work is getting access to a job and workplace in the first place [20]. Therefore, there is a strong argument for investigating gaining work separately to retaining work.…”

Aging, Community-Based Employment, Mobility Impairment, and Retirement: National Core Indicators–Adult Consumer Survey Data

“…Most individuals with IDD do not drive, and so they require transportation to work (Bezyak, Sabella, & Gattis, 2017). Across disability types, access to transportation, physical location, and travel requirements were noted as major considerations in finding and keeping employment (Graham, Inge, Wehman, Seward, & Bogenschutz, 2018). McCausland, Stancliffe, McCallion, and McCarron (2019) reported that older people with IDD in Ireland mostly used transportation provided by disability staff to attend work or day programs, with a minority traveling independently using public transportation.…”