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21 pages, 43824 KiB

Open AccessArticle

“I Feel Proud That with This App We Can Help Other People with Intellectual Disabilities”: The Role of an Expert by Experience Digital Inclusion Citizen Advisory Panel

by Esther Murphy, Orla Shiels, Mei Lin Yap, Fionn Crombie Angus, James Delaney, Brian Hogan, Christina Burke, Darren Heduan, Denise Breslin and Sara Fiori

Disabilities 2022, 2(4), 715-735; https://doi.org/10.3390/disabilities2040050 - 9 Nov 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4922

Abstract

Despite legislation affirming the rights of people with intellectual disabilities to take equal part in society, marginalization persists. Accessibility needs can impact this group’s ability to engage in the digital society and in aspects of daily living, such as employment and socializing. The Digi-ID PLUS study was established with a team of seven people with an intellectual disability. Team members were hired as a diverse group to give insight into their lived experiences in reviewing and validating research findings. Their insights were key to every aspect of Digi-ID PLUS. It has been recognized that user-centered design enhances technology development and accessibility; therefore, the aim of establishing a Citizen Advisory Panel (CAP) in our program design and delivery is to include the critical role of users by experience to review, validate and test our solution to enhance the accessibility of all aspects of the program. Working with Digi-ID PLUS, the CAP spoke of the impact being paid team members had on their lives. Analysis of insights shared indicated that being a part of the team had a positive impact on their self-image confidence and digital skills acquisition CAP members discussed the importance of supporting each other and the value of being paid for their insights. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the 6th IASSIDD Europe Congress)

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20 pages, 362 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Australia’s Disability Employment Services Program: Participant Perspectives on Factors Influencing Access to Work

by Alexandra Devine, Marissa Shields, Stefanie Dimov, Helen Dickinson, Cathy Vaughan, Rebecca Bentley, Anthony D. LaMontagne and Anne Kavanagh

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(21), 11485; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111485 - 31 Oct 2021

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 6065

Abstract

Disability employment programs play a key role in supporting people with disability to overcome barriers to finding and maintaining work. Despite significant investment, ongoing reforms to Australia’s Disability Employment Services (DES) are yet to lead to improved outcomes. This paper presents findings from the Improving Disability Employment Study (IDES): a two-wave survey of 197 DES participants that aims to understand their perspectives on factors that influence access to paid work. Analysis of employment status by type of barrier indicates many respondents experience multiple barriers across vocational (lack of qualifications), non-vocational (inaccessible transport) and structural (limited availability of jobs, insufficient resourcing) domains. The odds of gaining work decreased as the number of barriers across all domains increased with each unit of barrier reported (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.07, 1.38). Unemployed respondents wanted more support from employment programs to navigate the welfare system and suggest suitable work, whereas employed respondents wanted support to maintain work, indicating the need to better tailor service provision according to the needs of job-seekers. Combined with our findings from the participant perspective, improving understanding of these relationships through in-depth analysis and reporting of DES program data would provide better evidence to support current DES reform and improve models of service delivery. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Approaches to Real-World Health and Rehabilitation Services)

16 pages, 1540 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Unemployment Trajectories and the Early Risk of Disability Pension among Young People with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Nationwide Study in Sweden

by Tea Lallukka, Ellenor Mittendorfer-Rutz, Jenni Ervasti, Kristina Alexanderson and Marianna Virtanen

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(7), 2486; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17072486 - 5 Apr 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4252

Abstract

Depression and anxiety are associated with unemployment and disability pension, while autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is less studied. We aimed to first identify unemployment trajectories among young adults with and without ASD, and then to examine their social determinants. Finally, we used the trajectories as determinants for subsequent disability pension. We used a population-based cohort, including 814 people who were 19–35 years old, not on disability pension, and who had their ASD diagnosis between 2001 and 2009. A matched reference population included 22,013 people with no record of mental disorders. Unemployment follow-up was the inclusion year and four years after. Disability pension follow-up started after the unemployment follow-up and continued through 2013. We identified three distinctive trajectories of unemployment during the follow-up: (1) low, then sharply increasing (9%,) (2) low (reference, 67%), and (3) high then slowly decreasing (24%). People with ASD had higher odds of belonging belong to the trajectory groups 1 (OR 2.53, 95% CI 2.02–3.18) and 3 (OR 3.60, 95% CI 3.08–4.19). However, the mean number of unemployment days was relatively low in all groups. A disability pension was a rare event in the cohort, although memberships to groups 1 and 3 were associated with the risk of a future disability pension. More knowledge is needed about factors facilitating participation in paid employment among people with ASD. Full article

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16 pages, 310 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Brave New World of Work through the Lens of Disability

by Elisa Fiala

Societies 2018, 8(2), 27; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc8020027 - 5 May 2018

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 8101

Abstract

Work and paid employment has become a central aspect of social identity in our contemporary work societies. The assumed positive aspects of wage labour and employment on individual well-being are hardly questioned. It is instead claimed that work offers the individual a sense of purposefulness, a possibility to contribute to the collective good and a daily structure. Since its late emergence in the 1960s, the disability rights movement has put an emphasis on exclusion from work and employment. Nevertheless, all over the world, people with disabilities still belong to the most marginalised groups in the labour market. Using disability rights monitoring as a method, this paper explores what role the disability rights framework plays in shaping and transforming our present work society. Based on a German context, it is outlined how the international human rights framework has influenced the social policies that support the inclusion of disabled people in work and employment. Including the narratives of disabled people, it is outlined that despite comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation, the German labour market remains exclusionary and discriminatory against people with disabilities. Recently introduced measures, however, point to a new direction and aim to create a more equal and just world of work that acknowledges embodied differences and the needs and capabilities of disabled and non-disabled workers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Participation and Human Rights)

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