Although there has been extensive research on the career mobility of the general population, knowledge of the experiences of people with disabilities is much more limited. Research on disability and employment has tended to focus on addressing barriers and supports for obtaining or maintaining employment, rather than how career mobility can enhance employment outcomes.
To fill this knowledge gap, the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC), a Canadian not-for-profit research organization that develops, field tests, and evaluates new programs, explored the obstacles and facilitators to career advancement and mobility for people with disabilities and produced a new report: Career Mobility of People with Disabilities. The report summarizes the research evidence on disparities in advancement opportunities between individuals with disabilities and those without, as well as strategies that employers can adopt to support the career mobility of their employees with disabilities. Career mobility for this study is interpreted as a positive concept, describing how employees have the opportunity to change positions or roles to obtain greater job fulfillment.
The researchers found clear evidence that people with disabilities are more likely to experience limitations on career advancement and work in higher-risk and precarious positions. As people with disabilities often have fewer employment opportunities, they can find themselves “stuck” in certain types of positions that offer little opportunity for mobility or advancement.
People with lived experience of disability who were interviewed for this study framed career mobility around the freedom of choice and prospects for pursuing a fulfilling career, including all the opportunities for movement (upward or lateral, education and training, and personal development) that a typical career journey involves. This conception of career mobility is important as it has implications at a program and policy level, emphasizing the need to look at the whole person, including their short and long-term interests, needs, and desires related to pursuing a fulfilling career.
The research highlights a number of barriers and facilitators to career mobility for people with disabilities. A major barrier is discrimination, which results from negative stereotypes and a lack of knowledge from both employers and colleagues on how to accommodate and interact with people with disabilities. The report highlights how addressing workplace culture and attitudinal barriers that contribute to discrimination is important because they permeate throughout all aspects of an individual’s employment experience. Improving workplace culture and ‘disability confidence’ was noted as critical to facilitating career mobility through practices such as disability awareness training to help employers address misconceptions and stigma.
Closely associated with discrimination, disclosure, and accommodations are a challenge to career mobility due to the potential negative reaction and discrimination that people with disabilities can face from employers and colleagues. People with disabilities can also face challenges in obtaining the accommodations they need, often having to continually advocate for themselves when taking on new job opportunities, even within the same workplace. The research highlights the importance of standardizing the accommodation process across an organization, which means that all employees, not just people with disabilities, are assessed for accommodations as an automatic process when starting a job or moving to a new position.
While this research provides valuable insights into what is known with respect to the career mobility of people with disabilities, it also highlights key gaps in current knowledge on the subject:
• Beyond public sector, there is little research that addresses the extent of the challenges that people with disabilities face related to career mobility in Canada.
• There is a very limited understanding of the impact barriers to career mobility can have.
• There is limited understanding of the different types of discrimination.
• There is limited research on social identities, disability type and severity, and variability from sector to sector.
Further exploration into the challenges experienced by people with disabilities can help foster an environment where all employees can thrive and advance in their careers.
Access the full report at srdc.org.
Shawn de Raaf, Research Director, SRDC. Patrick Wray, SeniorResearch Associate, SRDC.
The Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC) is a non-profit research organization created specifically to develop, field test, and rigorously evaluate new programs. Our two-part mission is to help policymakers and practitioners identify policies and programs that improve the well-being of all Canadians, with a special concern for the effects on the disadvantaged, and to raise the standards of evidence that are used in assessing these policies.
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