Research on Challenges Faced by Disabled Australians in Employment

This report investigates the challenges faced by people with disabilities in the Australian employment sector, addressing underrepresentation and barriers to social inclusion. It highlights that despite the willingness of individuals with disabilities to work and contribute to society, they encounter significant obstacles, including social, organizational, and attitudinal barriers. The research reviews existing literature, focusing on qualitative studies and interventions aimed at improving employment rates. It examines the role of government policies like the National Disability Strategy (NDS) and analyzes findings from interviews and systematic reviews to identify key barriers such as stigma, prejudice, and inaccessible environments. The report emphasizes the need for strategies that promote inclusivity, reduce dependency on welfare, and enhance the quality of life for people with disabilities in Australia. Desklib provides access to this and other student-contributed assignments for educational purposes.

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Research on exploring challenges faced by people with disabilities in employment sector in
Australia.
Name
Professor
Course
Date

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Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Aim of the study 2
Method & literature review 3
Results 4
Types of disability 5
Inclusive interventions and strategies 6
Recommendations and Implications for the practice 7
Conclusion 8
References 9

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Introduction
Statistics and research conducted by various non-governmental organizations show that
people living with disabilities in Australia have been greatly underrepresented (Campbell &
Oliver, 2013).This underrepresentation is common and very evident in all sectors of the
Australian workforce. For the first four years for instance, the unemployment rate has been
increasing and the condition is not too projected to get any better anytime soon. As a matter
of fact this condition is worsening day in and day out. This condition is so threatening in that
there should be a full representation of persons of all kinds in the work force but this has not
been the case.
Employment participation rate for persons with various kinds of disabilities is way less
compared to the employment participation of persons without any form of disability. ,
statistics also show that the unemployment cohort rate has been approximately estimated to
lie between 1.3-1.5% times much higher that persons with no nay form of disabilities. Most
of the persons with disabilities are often willing to work, they always have the drive within
then of trying to secure employment so that they are in a position to support them by
becoming financially empowered and independent and also contribute to the society either
socially or economically. With all this determination and hunger to secure employment, it’s
often very hard to secure the employment itself (Carter, Austin, Trainor, 2012).The wider
Australian community has really been underestimating these people. They a see them as
lesser persons and people who cannot be in a position to do anything worth it. They overlook
them with the notion that they will not be able to deliver as expected, what they are forgetting
is that disability is not inability and no matter the physical condition that one is in, they can
still perform and should therefore be given same employment opportunities just like other
people.

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It not just the employment issue, people with disability also got gets the social inclusion they
deserve. They are totally ignored and overlooked this has been attributed to be one of the
many causes of their underrepresentation. As we all know, work plays Avery crucial role in
someone’s life. Work has the ability to make people feel that they are capable; it raises
people’s confidence in life and also helps in the development of a person as a whole socially,
economically and emotionally. Employment opportunities not being offered to these people
makes them feel much more oppressed and misplaced and do not fit in the society (Domingo,
2012).
The Australian government has been trying so much to remedy this situation. The
government feels that all people should be given same employment opportunities. The
government has been involved in quite number cases trying to solve this issue of
misrepresentation. Increasing the employment participation for people with disabilities have
been one of the strategies that the Australian government has been using is as to address the
issue of labour shortages and at the same time minimizing the rate of the constantly
increasing external pressure (DuBois & Miley, 2013). There are quite a number of
advantages that would be brought about by an increase in the employment rate for people
with disabilities. For instance, increasing the employment rate and reducing
underrepresentation of people with disabilities will result into an enhanced quality of life for
these people and also increased financial independence which would in turn reduce the
dependency ration by a very bug margin. People with disabilities will thus stop relying and
depending on their family members to provide for them or relying on other welfare services
such as the Disability Support Pension as they would now be in a position to work and earn
some living for themselves (Iezzoni, 2011).
Aims of the study

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The aim of this particular study is to explicitly look at what are some of the challenges that
are being faced by people living with various kinds of disabilities in the employment sector in
Australia. Here the employment sector could be either paid or as a volunteer or even both.
Moreover, it also intends to look at what are some of the interventions from the people living
with disabilities.
This paper will therefore focus to carefully analyse the findings that would be generated
herein about the main and common challenges that this group of people face in Australia and
some of the barriers and stumbling blocks to securing a meaningful employment opportunity.
Strategies that can be employed to remedy the situation will also be looked at.
Research Question
Basically this report aims to answer the following research questions;
a) “What are some of the challenges that are experienced by people with disabilities in
the employment sector in disabilities?”
b) “To what extent has the current policies and programs supported disabled people in
acquiring full-time jobs?”
Literature review
The literature review presented herein is a qualitative review it basically aims at reviewing
the qualitative study and also attempting to present a detailed and a discrete qualitative
analysis on the challenges faced by people living with disabilities while they try to secure
employment opportunities (Pheasant, 2014). This study will critically and explicitly evaluate
previous literature regarding the same issue of underrepresentation of people with disabilities
in the employment sector. There are certain factors that might have influenced the

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employment rate, policies regarding employment and also programs that are available to
integrate disable persons into the huge and dynamic Australian labour force.
In line with the aims of the study mentioned earlier, this literature review is focused on two
major aspects. First and foremost, it’s to understand some of the common barriers by people
with disabilities in Australia and second it’s to identify some of the strategies and
interventions that are useful in solving the issue but in this case according to the perspective
of the people with disabilities.
Methodology
There was a systematic review on the international reports give b a number of articles
describing inclusion in Australia The research has used research databases so as to get
adequate information regarding the topic of the stud. Also, there was use of interview
whereby a number of participants with disabilities were asked on those challenges they
experienced in workforce. The articles used in the research were; Gauging underdog
entrepreneurship for disabled entrepreneurs. Journal of Enterprising Communities: People
and Places in the Global Economy, 12(1), 3-18, Inclusive growth and climate change
adaptation and mitigation in Australia and China: Removing barriers to solving wicked
problems and Social work research in the field of disability in Australia: A scoping
review. Australian Social Work, 71(1), 18-31 (Ma, Chan, Carruthers, 2014).
There were 266 articles which were identified through the research. There were also
additional 1 articles which were obtained from the Google scholar and other database
sources. Articles which included information on teenage were excluded since they did not
have adequate information. After excluding some articles, 27 of them remained and were
critically analysed in depth. The 27 articles included information on adults with disabilities.

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After a careful scrutiny if the various articles, important data was obtained from each of them
and there are some terms that were specifically selected that could be used to refer and/or
represent the population of interest (Madans, Loeb, Altman, 2011).Some of the terms that
were selected include; disability, intellectual, mental illness, among others. It is important to
note that some of these terms will frequently be used in this report.
The information presented herein was sourced from various sources. For instance, some of
the sources that this literature was sourced from include; Google scholar, various computer
databases and some other government publications that majorly focused on issues to deal
with persons with disabilities.
The two case studies used in the research involves the use of interview on a number of
participants within a certain locality. The participants were interviewed and the analyses done
as shown by the first study and the second study.
Articles used in the research.
Article Author Year Description of
article
Research
participants
Gauging underdog
entrepreneurship
for disabled
entrepreneurs. Jour
nal of Enterprising
Communities:
People and Places
in the Global
Economy, 12(1), 3-
Saxena, S. S.,
& Pandya, R.
S. K.
(2018). The article
investigates the
challenges
faced by
people with
disabilities in
employment
sector.
A total of 85
disabilities
people were
asked on the
challenges
facing them in
employment
sectors.

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18.
Inclusive growth
and climate change
adaptation and
mitigation in
Australia and
China: Removing
barriers to solving
wicked problems.
Bell, W., &
Zheng, X.
(2018). The article
focuses on the
social
interaction
between people
with
disabilities in
employment
sectors in
Australia
Included a
number of
disability
people aged 20-
27 years .They
gave response
on how they
were treated in
different
workplace.
Social work
research in the field
of disability in
Australia: A
scoping
review. Australian
Social Work, 71(1),
18-31.
Bigby, C.,
Tilbury, C., &
Hughes, M.
(2018). The article
focuses on the
research topic
of the study.
10 women with
disabilities
were receiving
support from
governmental
disability
organization in
Australia.
How the data was analysed.
The data obtained was analysed by indicating the root cause of the challenges facing peoples
with disabilities. Two case studies were used which dependent on research interview and
sampling techniques. In order to account for the results a Gant chart showing how articles
were analysed was shown as below;

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Gant chart with steps used to analyse the articles.
The chart indicates what was done in selecting the appropriate article for the data needed to
obtain adequate information. Each section has summarised what was done by the members
used in research.
Findings
Barriers to employment
The literature used revealed that most of the people with disabilities experience high degrees
of exclusion in regard to employment opportunities due to various reasons among which are

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social, organizational and attitudinal barriers and not issues that directly related to their
physical conditions (Garthwaite, 2011). These barriers are not as a result of people looking
having a negative attitude to these people in that they doubt the capability of the disabled in
terms of deliverance. They feel that these people are not competent enough to deliver as per
required of them.
Most of these barriers are linked to issues such as stigma, various forms of prejudice not to
mention different kinds of stereotypes discrimination. It was also reviled that these people
experience so many challenges regarding employment which are directly and/or indirectly
related to various forms of natural, build and rural environment system structures. There were
also some physical barriers that were identified and these comprised of inabilities for people
with disabilities to carry out their normal daily activities (Groce, Kett, Lang, Trani, 2011).
The issue here is that if these people are not in a position to carry out their normal and daily
activities effectively, they must get some little help from people around them, then how can
they manage to carry out certain tasks assigned to them after employment. There were also
challenges that were related to their low levels of education that were identified. Most of
people with disabilities in Australia have a very low level of education. Moreover, they also
tend to have an extremely limited psychological skill set that could make it almost impossible
for them to compete favourably in the job market.
There were certain programs and policies that were specifically designed to implement and to
address the challenges facing people with disabilities and their families in general. An
example of such a program is a policy called the National Disability Strategy (NDS). In the
verge of its implementations NDS made some very remarkable findings regarding some of
the challenges that actually exists that face people with disabilities all over Australia as far as
the issue of employment is concerned. It was found out that there existed some negative
attitudes among the pool of other employed normal people who strongly believed that the

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disabled people could not deliver as they would work really slowly. Their production levels
would be really low which would in turn affect the various organizations and businesses that
these people are employed in (Wendell, 2013).
It also reviled that most of the employer in Australia were greatly concerned about some of
the random potential risks that were directly associated with the persons being disabled. High
risks of recruitment and maintenance costs could be expected which would really cause some
great amount of loss (Burkhauser & Daly, 2011). This was solely pegged on the fact that
people with disabilities lacked the appropriate knowledge to perfume certain tasks effectively
as required f them.
Moreover, this initiative also reviled that most of employees lack confidence and are very
reluctant in employing people with disabilities because they strongly believe that these people
lack the tactical knowledge and competency that is required so as to be in a position to fulfil
certain tasks effectively as per what is required. The lack of trust in the ability of people with
disabilities has made employers overlook.
Most importantly, it was also noted that some of the employers complain that there is a total
lack of connection and commitment among employers and most of the disability employment
organizations (Ali, Schur, Blanck, 2011). These organizations cannot provide employers with
people who can work and deliver as per what is expected. Another issue that has been making
employers reluctant in employing people with disabilities is the lack of exposure of a
disability by the disabled persons themselves. Research conducted showed that these
employers often get frustrated and disturbed in cases where a disable person does not fully
disclose their disability because this could have an effect of causing unknown and unexpected
risks which might be so difficult to manage thus causing great amounts of losses to the
employer. It was also found that one of the reasons as to why disabled person do not disclose

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their disability is because they feel that they would not secure employment if they indicated
that they had any kind of disability. These people are trying to survive the say; it’s the only
way they are ever going to get employed, by hiding their disability. This shows that there
exists some kind of misunderstanding between these two parties as the other needs total
transparency and the other feels that they have to hide their disability in order to get
employed.
Despite all these challenges, there are some people with disabilities that are actively involved
in various workforces and positively contribute towards economic development and social
impact on the society (Baynton, 2013).
Types of disability
Disability has been classified in a number of groups including the physical, the speech,
intellectual disability, stroke or brain damage and the psychological type of disability
(Anema, Prinz, Prins, 2013). In 2009 the statistics in Australia had indicated that the most
type of disability which was facing the country was the physical disability which affected
almost 80% of the age working individuals in the country. Furthermore, the type of disability
being experienced by someone usually affects his or her employment capabilities. Those who
had speech impairment had secured good job opportunities unlike those who had
psychological impairment in the country who had secured the lowest job opportunities of
about 29%. Also, those who had the mental disorders experienced challenges since they
could not be punctual to the work and furthermore they would incur interruptions since they
had sporadic occurrences of their stability (Attard & Price-Kelly, 2010).
The inclusive strategies and interventions.
In order to discuss the second section of the research proposal, there were two development
projects which were analysed. The two projects were keenly selected since they address the