Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation

The road to employment can be uncertain for millions of adults with intellectual disability and their families. It is important to understand how they navigate this journey and the challenges they experience.

We examined the pathways taken by four families in their pursuit of integrated employment, as well as the complexities they encountered along the way.

In this longitudinal, multiple case study, we followed families across one year. They (and their mentors) completed questionnaires at the beginning of the project, we checked in with them monthly, and we interviewed them at the conclusion of the project.

Five primary findings emerged from their experiences: pursuing employment is a family affair, it is an extended journey, each family’s journey is different, mentorship matters, and multifaceted support is needed.

Families need ongoing support and guidance to navigate their journey toward competitive employment. We offer recommendations for research and practice aimed at supporting families in this important pursuit.

Employing qualified individuals with disabilities can improve organizational competitiveness and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. However, research on disability inclusion policy and practices among employers committed to hiring people with disabilities is limited.

This study aimed to investigate efforts of Fortune 500 companies to include disability in their DEI policy and examine the effect of disability inclusion policy and practices on employment of people with disabilities

Four hundred sixty-six human resource and project managers with hiring authority participated in the present study. The Disability Inclusion Profiler-23 (DIP-23) was used to assess the perceived importance and implementation level of disability inclusion policy and practices in Fortune 500 and non-Fortune 500 companies. Two-sample independent t-tests were used to compare disability-employment rates and disability inclusion scores between Fortune 500 and non-Fortune 500 groups. Parallel mediation analysis was conducted to examine the extent to which executive level and mid-manager level DIP scores mediated the relationship between Fortune 500 companies and disability employment rates.

Fortune 500 companies demonstrated higher disability employment rates and better disability inclusion policies and practices compared to non-Fortune 500 companies.

State vocational rehabilitation agencies and other disability service providers should engage Fortune 500 executives to bolster disability inclusion efforts. Collaboration between vocational rehabilitation professionals and mid-level managers can enhance DIP policy implementation, thereby improving employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

With at least one-quarter of the U.S. adult population reporting one or more disabilities in 2020, people with disabilities represent a large and diverse group of individuals who often face significant barriers in the labor market, especially job displacement - involuntary job loss due to external factors.

We examine how rates of job displacement varied for people with different types of disabilities from 2007–2021, a period that includes the 2008 Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic.

We use data from six waves of Current Population Study Displaced Worker Supplement (CPS DWS, N = 344,729) and a series of logistic regression models to examine differences in displacement by disability status and type.

People with disabilities were approximately twice as likely as those without disabilities to experience job displacement, but more during times of economic turmoil. Although displacement disparities by disability status were decreasing from a high of 6.5 percentage points during the Great Recession, the pandemic increased the gap to 5.8 percentage points.

Involuntary job loss among people with disabilities is exacerbated by exogenous shocks. We extend work on disability and displacement, incorporating the COVID-19 pandemic in our discussion of explanations of both labor market disadvantage and precarity.

Approximately half of people with vision impairments are not employed or looking for work. Many of these people have additional health or disability concerns, but little is known about those concerns or other reasons they are out of the workforce.

We investigated employment barriers impacting labor force participation among people with vision impairments, their perceptions of their skills and training needs, and the impact of not working on their economic status.

Thirty people with vision impairments who were not in the labor force participated in exploratory interviews conducted using a semi-structured protocol. We used a qualitative software program and multiple researchers to code the interviews, identify and analyze themes, and organize participants’ information.

Employment barriers included concerns about health and disability, employer attitudes, transportation, training needs, economics, age, and lack of support. Some participants wanted to work now or in the past but were unable to find employment that accommodated their needs and generated a salary that made it economically worthwhile.

Participants appear to need assistance identifying career paths leading to economic security, training for these careers, locating affordable transportation, and working with employers to gain workplace accommodations. Providing support and encouraging family support may positively influence interest in employment.

Rates of un- and under-employment are high among persons with intellectual disabilities in Canada. More information is needed to better understand how current employment practices are experienced by persons with intellectual disabilities and those who hire and support them.

This exploratory and descriptive study sought to learn about employment practices as experienced by self-advocates with intellectual disabilities, employers, and employment specialists; to identify key barriers and facilitators to equitable inclusion of persons with intellectual disabilities in attaining and maintaining paid and competitive employment.

An online survey invited participants from all three groups to share their experiences and descriptive analysis was conducted to offer a summary of patterns across participant experiences.

149 participants (77 employment specialists, 59 self-advocates, and 13 employers) from across Canada participated in the survey and shared information about their experiences across recruitment, hiring, integration, and performance management of persons with intellectual disabilities.

This study offers information about employment practices in Canada that directly impact the experiences of potential or current employees with intellectual disabilities. The findings may be used to inform the development of employment standards, best practices, and/or future research to improve disability-inclusive employment.

Many individuals with psychiatric disabilities face workplace challenges that motivate them to pursue self-employment, but accessible self-employment support is lacking. Using participatory action research, Reclaiming Employment^TM (RE), an online interactive platform that provides self-employment education for people who experience mental health-related challenges around work, was developed to address these gaps.

An observational pilot study of RE examined usage, usability, self-efficacy, and self-employment income.

Participants (N = 97) used RE for six months; survey data was collected at three timepoints to measure entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and income generated from self-employment. Usability was assessed post-intervention using the System Usability Scale.

More than 70% of participants used RE; there was no association between non-usage and demographic characteristics, nor prior use of other self-employment supports. RE users rated the platform at above average usability, although those who experienced long-term unemployment rated the platform significantly lower compared to wage or self-employed users. In longitudinal regression models, we found use of RE was significantly associated with increases in some ESE subscales and mean ESE. Use of RE was not associated with gains in income.

This pilot study demonstrates acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary effectiveness of an online entrepreneurship training for individuals with psychiatric disabilities.

Individual Placement and Support (IPS) is an evidence-based vocational rehabilitation program that helps people with severe mental problems to obtain and maintain paid jobs. Turnover of IPS employment specialists is a scarcely studied subject that can undermine the effectiveness and implementation of the intervention.

This study aimed to explore and describe the experiential factors and processes that shape IPS employment specialists’ decisions to quit.

Braun and Clarke thematic analysis was used to analyze interviews of former IPS employment specialists, who worked during the early implementation phase in Northern Norway.

A number of negative and positive experiential factors and processes were found to shape IPS employment specialists’ decisions to quit their jobs. A single theme captured our findings ‘The decision to quit for IPS employment specialists is a gradual process consisting of draining factors outweighing nourishing factors’.

To retain IPS employment specialists in the early implementation phase, it is not enough to rely on hiring well-fitting individuals. Instead, prospectively developing interorganizational contexts, timely identifying and addressing work environment problems, while nurturing the strengths of individual workers can be helpful in decreasing turnover rates of IPS employment specialists.

Researchers argue that employment positively affects the well-being of people with serious mental illness. However, empirical studies have provided limited support for these hypotheses.

This study aimed to investigate perceptions of employment in relation to the meaning and purpose of life, an important aspect of well-being, among people with serious mental illness.

Qualitative research design was employed. Psychiatric service users with a history of employment (n = 21) were recruited from Japan. Photo-elicitation interviews were conducted, and the interview data were analyzed using thematic analysis.

Employment was recognized as a source of life meaning and purpose when it reflected personal values such as mastery and contribution to society. Employment was not recognized as relevant to life’s meaning and purpose if it was regarded as an instrumental activity for making a living. Nevertheless, participants generally agreed that employment was indispensable because it was essential for fulfilling their basic needs and overcoming the stigma of mental illness.

Our results demonstrate diverse attitudes toward employment among people with serious mental illness, which may explain why employment had only a small effect on well-being.

The measure Supported Employment (SE) and digitalization offer people with disabilities increased opportunities for participation in working life. Different technology acceptance models such as the TAM or UTAUT indicate that whether a technology is used or not crucially depends on various factors such as the perceived usefulness or perceived ease of use of a technology.

This study aims to investigate factors influencing the acceptance of digital technologies in the measure SE. Risks and opportunities for people with disabilities are examined.

The data basis consists of 16 qualitative guided interviews with job coaches and clients. The data evaluation is carried out by means of qualitative content analysis.

In line with the TAM and the UTAUT, six main factors could be identified as relevant for the acceptance of digital technologies in the measure SE: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitudes toward using, social influence, facilitating conditions, and individual factors seem to influence the actual use of technologies. The interviews show opportunities such as increased participation of people with disabilities in working life through technologies, but also risks such as the exclusion of older or less experienced people.

Factors from technology acceptance research also apply in SE and must be recognized before introducing new technologies.

The employment experiences of individuals with physical disabilities in previous studies shed light on the challenges they face and the assistance they receive in the workplace.

This study aimed to examine the practical and emotional social support received by individuals with physical disabilities in their workplaces from colleagues, employers, or supervisors. The study explored different forms of social support, considering both positive and negative outcomes.

Twenty participants completed a questionnaire consisting of open and closed-type questions to gather demographic and personal data. In-depth interviews were conducted as free discussions. Employing content analysis, the researchers categorized the reported forms of workplace social support into four primary categories and calculated their frequency of occurrence.

Participants reported 175 cases of practical support and 358 cases of emotional support, both with positive and negative outcomes. Among these cases, 376 referred to social support, practical and emotional, with positive outcomes, and 157 to social support, practical and emotional, with negative outcomes.

The participants received more cases of social support, practical and emotional, with positive outcomes than corresponding cases of social support with negative outcomes. At the same time, the reported cases of emotional support with positive and negative outcomes outnumbered the corresponding cases of practical support. These findings could be the starting point for future studies in workplace social support for people with physical disabilities.

The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) conducted a two-year process of literature review, writing, discussion, and debate within a panel of four subject matter experts in design, administration, and interpretation of Functional Capacity Evaluations (FCE). This process resulted in a Best Practice Guidelines document which was then adopted by the APTA.

This article provides additional clarification regarding best practices and standard methodology for functional capacity evaluations including standard terminology for use by physical therapists and vocational rehabilitation professionals in determining the types of work a patient has the capacity of performing.

The clarification of the role of the FCE, who is qualified to conduct an FCE, complexities such as ‘good effort’ and pain in the evaluation process, clarification of terms from different government agencies, and the implications for disability determination are discussed. RESULTS: Specific guidelines for best practice with FCE are suggested and demonstrated through case studies.

The best practice guidelines are detailed here to set forth qualification standards for FCE examiners and to promote clinical excellence, accountability, and consistency in the design, administration, and interpretation of FCEs.