Abstract
Editors Heymann, Stein, and Moreno note that as many as 200 million adults worldwide have a severe disability affecting daily functional activities. People with disabilities are more likely to be unemployed, self-employed, or to work part-time. They earn relatively lower wages, which is not solely attributable to human capital or related differences. The editors’ conference-related compilation thus intends to identify effective policies and programs for decreasing unemployment rates and improving employment conditions of persons with disabilities. The book’s vast scope is evidenced by the broad array of countries, organizations, workplace settings, socioeconomic environments, and data sets referenced. Most chapter contributors have extensive experience as researchers or practitioners in disability-related areas.
In large part, the writing is dispassionate, nuanced, and strongly evidence-based (when available, existing research is comprehensively documented). Chapters either assess a range of policies and practices or provide an organizational case study. The material is readily accessible: 1) the focus is on application, not theory, and 2) research findings and illustrative practices are succinctly and clearly summarized (relatively little original research was done specifically for this volume). Disability and Equity at Work is recommended but best used selectively. Only some chapters may be of particular interest; chapters are stand-alone contributions, not integrated; and generalizability of research findings and replicability of practices is a concern.
The longest section is on employers and multi-sector actors. Mont cautions against a singular approach to assisting people with disabilities, given differences in age at disability onset, affected functional domains, extent of disability, and employment/wage determinants. Geographic settings also differ. In low- and middle-income countries (Mont’s focus), little reliance on cash benefit programs or regulations occurs, and most jobs are in the informal labor market. Mont provides a typology of policy options (regulation, off-setting costs of hiring people with disabilities, and off-setting costs of employing them); highlights examples of policy usage; concludes that program evaluations with “comparison groups, high-quality data, and consistent definitions of disability” (p. 36) are unavailable in these jurisdictions; and recommends tailoring policies to reflect the heterogeneity of people with disabilities, linking employment programs to skills in demand, ensuring long-run program sustainability, and minimizing anti-work incentives.
Bruyère and Van Looy note that national survey and administrative data are very useful in documenting employment and economic differentials of people with disabilities; direct cross-country comparisons are difficult (attributable to national differences in defining disability and differing survey measures); and some trends are universal (people with disabilities are less likely to be employed). Experience in high-income countries is used to illustrate and critique workplace-level measures regarding employment outcomes for people with disabilities. Metrics include employment discrimination claims, workplace/human resource policies and practices (such as the difficult-to-measure but crucial role of supervisors and the people with disabilities’ perspectives—one of the few instances that such “voice” is explicitly discussed in this book); and employer analytics (though “globally, research examining within-organization, post-hire factors” affecting employment outcomes of people with disabilities has been “limited” [p. 62]).
The other chapters in this section are more narrowly focused. Two lengthy and very detailed case studies are included; one, in which the author broaches in passing the replicability of a London-based nonprofit organization that facilitates the hiring and retention of people with disabilities; the other, a Brazilian for-profit company’s employment program for disabilities, about which the author is ambivalent regarding replicability. The two remaining chapters are 1) an overview of assistive technology and accessibility for people with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries, which has an informative but very technical discussion of technology; and 2) a discussion of how microfinance (“the provision of financial services to poor persons” [p. 172]) affects employment outcomes of people with disabilities, in which it is concluded that “rigorous academic research” (p. 190) is nonexistent and access to microfinance will not necessarily improve living standards, absent other factors.
The book’s shortest section is entitled A Life-Course Approach and Beyond. Two chapters discuss youth with disabilities. Rusch and coauthors note that, despite the proliferation of federally funded “transition-based services,” more than 50% of U.S. middle-school students with disabilities do not complete high school, those entering high school two or more years below grade level are more likely to drop out, and 30 to 50% of youth in correctional facilities are individuals with disabilities. Some context regarding “special education” (a term mentioned some 20 times) and implementation specifics regarding the coauthors’ policy prescriptions on schooling would have been useful. Lindstrom and Kahn’s discussion of career advancement notes that employment immediately after completing high school is associated with youth with disabilities’ employment stability. They cite findings or practices from eight countries regarding barriers to career advancement and also reference findings or practices from nine countries regarding individual-, organizational-, and systemic-level strategies to improve career advancement for youth with disabilities. Prins’ chapter concerns late-onset disability among those employed in EU and OECD countries. He observes that sickness and disability policies encompass two potentially contradictory goals (income support during periods of work incapacity and assistance to remain in the work force or to return to work as soon as possible). Prins notes that disability policies in many EU and OECD countries have undergone a policy shift because of financial pressures and greater interest in reintegrating workers with disabilities. He highlights recent reforms in several countries and concludes that even though “these approaches are in need of more stringent evaluations and better knowledge on transferability to different environments” (pp. 261-62), sufficient baseline evidence currently exists.
The book’s last section focuses on the government’s role in improving the employment conditions of people with disabilities. Mitra documents how employment rates among people with disabilities differ sharply across 15 low-income countries. These findings are particularly notable because the same survey was used, and results are disaggregated by disability type, which is uncommon in this volume. Mitra identifies labor market constraints in low- and middle-income countries and provides a useful categorization of “possible interventions” (“evidence-based,” either in developing or developed countries, and “mixed or no evidence, but theoretically sound”) (p. 278). No “blanket recommendations” (p. 282) are offered, given contextual differences and little evidence about program effectiveness in these countries. She instead suggests that more targeted, “situational analyses” (p. 282) be initially undertaken. Maldonado notes that people with disabilities in Peru have low educational levels, low labor market participation rates (particularly women), employment access that is largely confined to the informal sector, and employment/wage levels that are not solely attributable to education and other observable factors. She critiques the Peruvian government’s policy instruments (anti-discrimination measures, quota systems, financial supports, training programs, and employment services) and concludes that two policies are particularly effective (general workforce programs and preferential treatment of firms supplying goods and services to the government).
Stapleton and Mann offer a bold proposal for revamping disability policy in the United States. They initially note that a key challenge for U.S. policymakers, as in similar countries, is to empower people with disabilities to become fully productive while simultaneously 1) preserving basic support for individuals with limited capability for self-sufficiency, and 2) slowing the growth in public expenditures. Two trends were evident between 1980 and 2010: 1) employment rates and earned income of working-age people with disabilities continuously fell relative to non-disabled peers, and 2) growth in government outlays for working-age people with disabilities exceeded growth in the Gross Domestic Product and other government expenditures. Stapleton and Mann also conclude that, of the various recent U.S. policies and programs designed to increase economic self-sufficiency and employment of working-age people with disabilities, only one (the Americans with Disabilities Act) fulfilled the employment recommendations of the World Report on Disability. They thus recommend a major structural change to this country’s disability support system, preceded by a 10-year or longer demonstration period, in which eligibility criteria would shift (from chronic inability to work, to potential work capacity); income benefits provision would be based on individual beneficiary characteristics; work supports would be provided; and funding would be funneled through a single entity. Sakuraba’s chapter assesses Japan’s use of employment quotas (obligating employers to employ people with disabilities) and the doctrines of labor contracts (which extend legal protections to those whose disability onset occurs when employed); and Lawson’s chapter analyzes the EU’s disability employment policy.
In sum, this volume is very useful in delineating actual or potential policies and programs to improve the employment conditions of people with disabilities. To their credit, most chapter authors not only comprehensively document findings regarding effective practices but also readily acknowledge the dearth or total absence of evidence. The editors observe at the outset that “tackling a problem of this magnitude, especially on a global scale, requires as many feasible solutions as possible” and that “labor market barriers . . . are diverse and multifaceted, and cannot be overcome with one silver bullet” (p. 9). Keeping this in mind, researchers and practitioners will be largely well-served by this recommended volume.