Abstract
This book, Disability & Equity at Work, describes its goal as "to discuss factors contributing to disabled persons' inequality at work and to offer proposals for leveling this uneven playing field." The book is an interdisciplinary, international review of the laws, policies, initiatives, and studies regarding the employment situation of individuals with disabilities. It is a compilation of fifteen different chapters by different authors, which cover a wide variety of subject matters. Some chapters focus on low- and middle-income countries, where individuals with disabilities often have low employment and high poverty rates. And some chapters focus on problems that still plague high-income countries, despite their relative wealth and aggressive employment discrimination laws.
[...]
Despite the book's variety, I took away two main points. The first is that employment laws related to disability are only a small part of what is needed to truly improve the employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities. Many of the strategies and initiatives mentioned in this book do not involve employment laws. The second point is that the word "disability" has no set meaning. I was struck by both the lack of definitions in the various chapters, and the highly variable estimates of the percentage of persons who have a disability (in part because researchers use different definitions to study disability occurrence). These two points are related. In this review, I argue that in order to inspire research, programs, initiatives, and legislation that will improve the employment outcomes of individuals with disabilities, we need to have some idea of how to define this group of individuals. Thus, I argue in favor of using a universal definition of disability.
This abstract has been adapted from the author's introduction.
Document Type
Book Review
Publication Date
2014
Publication Information
18 Employee Rights & Employment Policy Journal 289-330 (2014)
Repository Citation
Porter, Nicole B., "A Defining Moment: A Review of Disability & Equity at Work, Why Achieving Positive Employment Outcomes for Individuals with Disabilities Requires a Universal Definition of Disability" (2014). Faculty Publications. 2193.
https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/facpubs/2193
Included in
Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Disability Law Commons, Labor and Employment Law Commons
Comments
Reviewing Jody Heymann, Michael Ashley Stein, and Gonzalo Moren's Disability & Equity at Work (2014).