Doctoral Dissertation Research: Disability Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

Clark University, Worcester MA

Investigators

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation project will analyze the origins and impacts of large employers' efforts to promote disability diversity and inclusion ("D&I") in the workplace, and how such efforts transform the workplace as a place. Disability D&I initiatives have grown in both the public and private sectors since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 and even more so since the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) in 2008. The federal government, which employs about 2.2 million people, has set the goal of having 12% of its workforce be people with disabilities. The government has also set a 7% goal for federal contractors, a sector that includes large employers in areas such as defense, security, finance and accounting, information technology, and consulting. This study will examine why and how public and private employers have sought to hire more employees with disabilities and how and in what ways the greater presence of people with disabilities transforms workplace culture. Enhanced understanding of disability inclusion at work will provide specific and actionable information for employers and policy-makers. It will forward both national prosperity and welfare because the disability employment gap represents a loss of wealth in terms of untapped talent. The researchers will provide policy-makers and organizational leaders with specific practices they can apply. The trends in disability D&I offer an opportunity for investigating how processes of inclusion and exclusion shape places, especially workplaces. Data gathered through interviews, observation in the form of job shadowing, and document research, will address three questions: (1) How does disability inclusion transform everyday socio-spatial relations, both in advance and because of D&I initiatives? (2) How does knowledge about disability D&I shape inclusion practices? (3) How do disability D&I narratives reconfigure ideas about disability "value?" Data collection will be focused in Washington, D.C., a significant center for the production and distribution of disability employment and equal employment policy and the hub for civilian employees of the US federal government and federal contractors, who are leading disability D&I efforts in mainstream workplaces. The analysis and findings will advance research in human geography, related disciplines, and the science of broadening participation, about the relationship between employment segregation, ideas about value, and how processes of exclusion and inclusion shape workplace character and use.