Disabled People, (Re)Training and Employment: A Qualitative Exploration of Exclusion

Diversity in work organisations

“…It is possible, therefore, for non-disabled people to journey through childhood and adulthood with very little contact with disability. This narrows the perspectives of nondisabled people on disability (Reynolds et al, 2001). Non-disabled people's lack of Corporate Equality Index with companies Lloyds TSB, Goldman Sachs and KPMG also in the top 10.…”

“…Opposing this approach, is the 'social model' which holds that disabled people are among the most excluded in society because of the attitudes of others rather than because of their disability per se. Disabled people experience work organisations as hostile, with a substantial proportion believing that attitudinal barriers render it almost impossible to find employment (Reynolds et al, 2001). Most social research on disability now reflects the social model.…”

“…When evaluating a disabled person's suitability for employment, non-disabled people tend to focus on disability rather than ability even though disability is not the deterministic indicator of ability it is widely held to be (Woodhams and Danieli, 2003). Disabled people are generally regarded as 'hard to employ' (Reynolds et al, 2001). The main misconceptions are that disabled people represent a health and safety risk (both to themselves, other employees and customers), that they will have higher sickness absence rates, that they will be less productive, perform less well and be generally more expensive to employ (Honey et al, 1993;Roberts, 1996).…”

Can they work it out and do they get any satisfaction? Young Swedish physically disabled men's and women's work involvement and job satisfaction

“…In this respect, conditions in Sweden and internationally are similar. Research also demonstrates that individuals with a disability are unemployed in the long term and granted an early retirement pension more often than individuals without disabilities (Barnes, Mercer, and Shakespeare 1999;Bricout and Bentley 2000;Jolly 2000;Reynolds, Nicholls, and Alferoff 2001;Barnes and Mercer 2005).…”

“…The first of these are individual-related, i.e., factors that can be related to the individual him/herself in the form of the degree of disability, individual educational level, own attitudes and so on. The second category is made up of societal factors, i.e., factors that can be related to both social and physical surroundings in the form of a poorly adapted physical environment, employers' negative attitudes (Thornton and Lunt 1997;Barnes, Mercer, and Shakespeare 1999;Bricout and Bentley 2000;Reynolds, Nicholls, and Alferoff 2001), poor employment prospects (Gonäs 1991) and demands on the employee's flexibility and education (Arnell Gustavsson 1996).…”