The review provides an overview of the legislative and labour market context for disabled workers, and considers the influence of definitions of disabilities on the workplace. It discusses:

Over the past 20 years, the United Kingdom has tried to promote fuller inclusion of disabled people into all aspects of public life, especially employment. The research addresses critical issues in the effort to expand employment opportunities for disabled people, in particular:

The review consists of a number of papers written by experts from the United Kingdom and the United States of America, and three of the chapters are accompanied by commentaries by other researchers who evaluate the chapters and suggest alternative interpretations and directions for future work.

Although the papers taken together do not find strong evidence to support specific recommendations for changes to policies, several themes emerge.

Firstly, policies should treat employers as important customers, and so if laws and regulations are attuned to employers’ goals, they will have a far greater chance for success.

Secondly, programmes should support existing employer-employee relationships as much as possible.

Thirdly, efforts designed to reduce employer uncertainty about disabled applicants should be explored, since employers might otherwise forgo recruiting potentially valuable disabled applicants.

And fourthly, training programmes, especially those providing customised training, should be expanded as they may ameliorate at least in part the lower average skill level of disabled people.

Department for Work and Pensions
Phone: +44 20 7712 2171
enquiries@dwp.gsi.gov.uk

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01/12/2006

Mathematica Policy Research Inc

research

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Integration of social groups

Disabled people