The Organizational Factors that Impact Employment: Agreed-Upon Barrier and Facilitators

Research Objectives: To describe and compare the perspectives of employees with disabilities (EWD) and employers on the organizational factors that affect employment.

Design: Cross-sectional surveys of EWD and employers.

Setting: EWD and employers in the Midwestern United States.

Participants: Convenience sample of 270 EWD and 53 employers involved in hiring and managing EWD.

Interventions: None.

Main Outcome Measures: Organizational factors that affect employment from the perspective of EWD and employers. Respondents categorized factors as related to social interactions, the work environment, or job demands.

Results: A similar proportion of employers (33%) and EWD (32%) agreed that negative attitudes of others in the workplace were barriers to job retention. In contrast, EWD reported support from their supervisor (80%) and acceptance of disability from co-workers (77%) were key facilitators of employment retention. Employers recognized the need for disability awareness and acceptance: 82% reported the benefit of training for job accommodations and 66% reported disability awareness training as a useful facilitator. Overall, safety of the work environment was not a major concern; fewer EWD reported concerns about safety in the workplace (23%) compared to employers (37%). While 41% of EWD reported challenges related to job demands and workload, 34% of employers worried that EWD could not perform essential job functions and 37% fear disciplining an EWD for poor job performance.

Conclusions: Achieving disability inclusion in the workplace is a goal of people with disabilities and employers alike. Employment for people with disabilities is complex and influenced by various personal and contextual factors. Our findings demonstrate that employers and EWD have similar perceptions of the barriers and facilitators to employment. Employers may benefit from participating in disability training and developing employee/business resource groups to encourage diversity, equity and inclusion goals broadly, and disability awareness and support specifically in the workplace.

Author(s) Disclosures: The authors report no conflicts of interest.