Disability Diversity Training in the Workplace: Systematic Review and Future Directions

What happens post-pilot testing? A model for revising a disability awareness and competency training program

Disability awareness and competency trainings are an important component of addressing ableism and health equity in the health promotion context. This commentary describes our process of developing, implementing, and refining a disability competency training, the Inclusive Community Exercise Training, for community-based group exercise instructors. The training originated from a partnership between academic researchers, community organizations, and individuals with disabilities. After initial pilot testing, we used feedback from participants to enhance the training. To optimize successful dissemination of this training, we utilized the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework, which is widely used in public health. The revision process focused on generalizing content to suit a wider audience, utilizing an eLearning platform for dissemination, and optimizing interactivity to improve learning effectiveness. The commentary emphasizes the lessons learned and the significance of systematic program revision, considering diverse expertise, content tailoring, and the benefits of accessible eLearning platforms.

Autistic Adults' Priorities for Future Autism Employment Research: Perspectives from the United Kingdom

Background

A growing body of research has sought to understand autistic people's research priorities. Several of these studies have identified employment as a key research priority. Yet, there have been a few attempts to identify specific, actionable priorities within this area.

Methods

Using an online survey, we asked 197 autistic people in the United Kingdom about their priorities for future autism-employment research.

Results

Participants spoke of their challenges in gaining and sustaining meaningful employment and called for researchers to conduct research that results in direct improvements to employment experiences. Regarding their research priorities, participants indicated a need for research covering all aspects of the employment lifecycle from accessing employment to transitioning out of employment. Importantly, participants also discussed how such research should be conducted: with autistic people as co-researchers and ensuring a diverse range of autistic people are listened to.

Conclusion

While much existing autism-employment research appears to align with the priorities outlined in this study, seemingly minimal attention has been paid to later stages of the work lifecycle (e.g., progressing into more senior job roles or transitioning out of work). By identifying disparities between autistic people's priorities and the research being conducted, we can support autistic people to drive the research agenda and ensure autism-employment research positively impacts the community it aims to serve.

Employer Practices for Customized Training for Onboarding of People With Disabilities

Background:To improve employment outcome, systematic research that is based on demand-side needs is needed to clarify how employer practice factors can affect customized training efforts.

Objective:The purpose of this study is to report the results of a scoping review to identify the best employer practices that are used to improve customized training efforts and results for people with disabilities in the workplace.

Method:A scoping review of demand-side employment literature was conducted. Five databases were searched for articles published between 1985 and 2017. After filtering articles based on the search criteria, the final number of articles included in the analysis was 27.

Findings:We identified three key themes related to customized training efforts. These include: (a) employment support, (b) work values, and (c) employment temperature.

Conclusion:The findings of this scoping review provide valuable information for disability employment professionals and rehabilitation counselors to engage and assist employers in relation to customized training efforts.

Diversity training for health professionals: Preparedness to competently address intellectual disability in the Western Cape Province, South Africa

Diversity training for health professionals in South Africa has traditionally been conceptualized as differences in gender, race or ethnicity, culture and sexual orientation. More recently physical disability and mental illness was included as a dimension. Intellectual disabilities received lip service as a diversity concern. This paper reports on health professionals' perceptions of the extent to which diversity training prepared them to competently deal with intellectual disabilities. This explorative study included a purposive sample of 18 health care professionals experienced in intellectual disability services. Two focus groups were facilitated over three sessions. Transcripts were analysed thematically. Health professionals felt inadequately prepared to consider intellectual disabilities as a diversity issue. They could not effectively advocate for reasonable accommodation. There was a differential familiarity with issues related to diversity and intellectual disability with profession constituting an additional intersecting dimension of diversity. Health professions did not perceive their diversity training to prepare them to deal competently with intellectual disabilities.

Employer Practices for Integrating People With Disabilities Into the Workplace: A Scoping Review

Background:Workplace inclusion contributes to job satisfaction and innovation. Integrating people with disabilities (PWDs) improves productivity, morale, creativity, problem-solving, and commitment. Previous evidence revealed that employers are ambivalent about integrating PWDs. There remains a paucity of literature that examines demand-side employment practices of integrating PWDs in the workplace.

Objective:The present study comprehensively reviewed the demand-side employment literature to identify existing practices used to improve the integrating PWDs in the workplace.

Methods:A scoping review was employed. Articles were retrieved from PsycInfo, Academic Search, Web-science, American Business Index, and ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global and published in English from January 1985 to August 2017.

Findings:The scoping review yielded 19 articles. Three themes were identified as common and effective employer practices, including (a) policy and allegation, (b) internal and external partnerships, and (c) organizational top-down management diversity support.

Conclusion:The findings of this scoping review provide collective information for integrating PWDs in the workplace. Findings shed some light on employer and rehabilitation counselors to engage and assist employers in promoting an inclusive workplace climate.

Building, sustaining and growing: disability inclusion in business

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the unique and the complementary aspects of disability inclusion and diversity strategies and to offer insight for organizations to integrate disability within diversity frameworks.

Design/methodology/approach

The research team conducted semi-structured interviews with diversity and inclusion “champions” from large businesses to learn about policies, practices and processes for fostering disability inclusion. The businesses have all received national recognition for supporting employees with disabilities.

Findings

Interviewees described strategies to build, sustain and grow disability inclusion by framing disability similarly to other diversity categories. The champions suggested practices to improve disability inclusion initiatives within their organizations.

Originality/value

There is limited information on what organizations are doing to support disability inclusion in the workplace. This study builds on the existing literature and responds to calls for case information from business personnel to gather data about common and effective practices.

Workplace Discrimination and Short Sleep Among Healthcare Workers: The Buffering Effect of People-Oriented Culture

OBJECTIVE

Examine the association of discrimination and short sleep and the buffering effect of people-oriented culture in the workplace among nurses and patient care associates.

METHODS

Used a mixed-methods design from the 2018 Boston Hospital Workers Health Study (N = 845) and semi-structured interviews among nurse directors (N = 16).

RESULTS

We found that people-oriented culture reduced the odds of short sleep and slightly attenuated the association of discrimination and short sleep. People-oriented culture did not buffer the effects of discrimination on short sleep. Qualitative findings showed that discrimination occurred between co-workers in relation to their job titles and existing support in the workplace does not address discrimination.

CONCLUSIONS

Healthcare industries need to implement specific programs and services aimed at addressing discrimination which can potentially improve health outcomes among workers.

Team Belonging: Integrating Teamwork and Diversity Training Through Emotions

With the worldwide focus shifting toward important questions of what diversity means to society, organizations are attempting to keep up with employees’ needs to feel recognized and belong. Given that traditionally team and diversity trainings are provided separately, with different theoretical backgrounds and goals, they are often misaligned and ineffective. We review 339 empirical articles depicting a team, diversity, or emotional management training to extract themes and determine which methods are most effective. Although research has demonstrated the importance of belonging for providing positive workplace outcomes, we found that the traditional design of these trainings and lack of emotional management prevent a balance between team and diversity goals, preventing belonging. We propose an integrative training with emotional management to help teams foster optimal belonging, where members can unite together through their differences. Accordingly, our themes inform this training model that can inspire future research into more effective training.

Valuing Diversity in the Team

One of the most impactful ways to create a dynamic team is to foster diversity and inclusivity within the workplace. Workplaces have become more heterogenous as advances in human, women, and civil rights group have spurred greater labor force participation by members of historically underrepresented groups. Studies have shown that leveraging diversity has important implications for the promotion of positive organization change through facilitation of individual and organization performance. Diverse clientele may be more comfortable and feel more welcome working with people in a diverse workplace.

Employment profiles of autistic adults in Australia

Autistic adults experience a high number of job changes, reduced working hours, minimal workplace supports, and overrepresentation in entry-level and low paid positions. This study adds to the existing evidence base to guide clinical decisions and interventions for this population. This study utilized baseline data collected between 2015 and 2017 from the Autism CRC's Australian Longitudinal Study of Autism in Adulthood. The aim was to describe the employment profiles and explore factors related to employment for Australian autistic adults aged 25 and older (N = 149). Comparisons between participants and the Australian workforce were made using Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data. Two logistic regression models were conducted to explore the association between underemployment and underutilisation with personal and environmental factors. In comparison to the Australian workforce, autistic adults were more likely to work part-time, work reduced hours and be employed at skill levels lower than their qualifications warranted. Logistic regressions reported that more autistic traits, more social supports and having workplace adjustments implemented were significantly associated with a higher odds of autistic adults being appropriately employed and/or utilized in the workforce. Results suggest that interventions implementing appropriate workplace adjustments, a supportive workplace environment, and adequate social supports may improve employment outcomes for autistic adults. All employees may benefit from workplace resources targeted toward fostering an inclusive workplace environment. LAY SUMMARY: This study aimed to describe the employment profiles and explore factors related to employment for Australian autistic adults. We compared this with the Australian workforce using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Autistic adults with more autistic traits and more social and workplace supports were more likely to be employed and have jobs that were better suited to them. Autistic adults might have better employment outcomes if they have the appropriate workplace adjustments, a supportive workplace and adequate social supports.

Diversity Training Goals, Limitations, and Promise: A Review of the Multidisciplinary Literature

In this review, we utilize a narrative approach to synthesize the multidisciplinary literature on diversity training. In examining hundreds of articles on the topic, we discovered that the literature is amorphous and complex and does not allow us to reach decisive conclusions regarding best practices in diversity training. We note that scholars of diversity training, when testing the efficacy of their approaches, too often use proxy measures for success that are far removed from the types of consequential outcomes that reflect the purported goals of such trainings. We suggest that the enthusiasm for, and monetary investment in, diversity training has outpaced the available evidence that such programs are effective in achieving their goals. We recommend that researchers and practitioners work together for future investigations to propel the science of diversity training forward. We conclude with a roadmap for how to create a more rigorous and relevant science of diversity training. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 73 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

An Examination of Barriers and Facilitators of Job Satisfaction and Job Tenure Among Persons With Disability in South Korea

The purpose of the study is to investigate the barriers and facilitators of job tenure among persons with disabilities (PWD), using the theory of work adjustment, which explains that the correspondence between person and environment predicts job satisfaction and consequently job tenure. This study utilized the ninth Panel Survey of Employment for the Disabled (PSED) data set compiled from 1,755 employees with disabilities in South Korea in 2016. The results show that education-level match and aptitude match are associated with job satisfaction, whereas the effect of job–skill match on job satisfaction was not significant. Job discrimination experience and accessible work facilities were significantly related to job satisfaction, which is a significant predictor of job tenure.

The Effects of Cooperative Learning on Peer Relations, Academic Support, and Engagement in Learning Among Students of Color

Despite Brown vs. Board of Education, prejudice still exists in the American school system. These attitudes can give rise to negative social experiences for students of color (i.e., discrimination), negatively impacting their mental and physical health and creating disparities in educational outcomes. Rather than seeking to ameliorate these negative experiences, our approach attempts to address the underlying prejudices and, in so doing, reduce these disparities. Using 4 waves of data from a cluster randomized trial (N = 15 middle schools, 1,890 students, 47.1% female, 75.2% White), we hypothesized that cooperative learning, which has been shown to reduce prejudice in previous research, would create positive gains in peer relatedness, perceptions of academic support, and engagement in learning, and that gains would be larger for students of color; our results confirmed these hypotheses. Our findings highlight the potential role of cooperative learning in reducing disparities and creating greater equity in education.

Disability awareness arena in Sweden: voices of learning toward community facilities, universal design and disability perspective

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to describe knowledge, awareness and experience of different employees in a Swedish municipality (City of Gothenburg) concerning the disability perspective, accessibility and universal design in practice.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is based on an online survey. A total of 119 different employees responded to the survey. The data was analyzed from a mixed-method approach, using descriptive statistics and textual analysis. The study also included personal interviews with 19 employees in the City of Gothenburg.

Findings

A total of 521 employees in the City of Gothenburg participated in disability awareness exercises (DAE) at the Disability Awareness Arena to gain greater knowledge and insight on disability perspectives in different environments and services. Of these, 119 people representing different professions in soft and hard services and companies participated in the survey; and 19 people participated in personal interviews. The study showed that a vast majority of them were very satisfied and they have developed and practiced their new knowledge and attitude toward disability and accessibility.

Research limitations/implications

One limitation in this study is that it has investigated the experiences and effects of the DAE 6–12 months after its implementation. Therefore, it is not possible to analyze long-term effects that the DAE can have in practice.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no prior study of these issues has been conducted in Sweden. This study is deemed to have significant social benefit because of the steadily increasing demand for disability simulations, awareness of disability perspective and accessibility in municipality settings. No other study has addressed the importance of the DAE in these perspectives. DAE is defined in this article as a unique concept for promoting the usage of the disability perspective in the everyday workplace.

Coffee and controversy: How applied psychology can revitalize sexual harassment and racial discrimination training

Training has shown little effectiveness in altering harassing or discriminatory behavior. Limitations of prior intervention efforts may reflect poor conceptualization of the problems involved, poor training intervention design, approaches that engender cynicism, or misunderstanding psychological principles of attitude and behavior change. Interventions should capitalize on behavioral science models and tools at multiple levels from a broad array of disciplines to explain harassment and bias, and then to defeat these behaviors. Measures to ensure fair treatment should focus on leadership socialization, organizational culture and climate, increased professional competence, and integration with organizational approaches to corporate social responsibility and performance.

COVID-19 and the need for disability conscious medical education, training, and practice

The COVID-19 era exposes what was already a crisis in the medical profession: structural racism, ageism, sexism, classism, and ableism resulting in healthcare disparities for Persons with Disabilities (PWD). Early research highlights these disparities, but we do not yet know the full impact of this pandemic on PWD. Over the last 20 years, many medical schools have attempted to develop disability competency trainings, but discrimination and inequities remain, resulting in a pervasive distrust of medicine by the disability community at large. In this commentary, we suggest that disability competency is insufficient because the healthcare disparities experienced by PWD are not simply a matter of individual biases, but structural and systemic factors requiring a culture shift in the healthcare professions. Recognizing that disability is a form of diversity that is experienced alongside other systemic disadvantages like social class, race, age, sex, gender identity, and geographic location, we explore the transformative potential of disability conscious medical education, training, and practice that draws on insights from intersectional disability justice activism. Disability conscious medicine is a novel approach, which improves upon competency programs by utilizing disability studies and the principles of disability justice to guide us in the critique of norms, traditions, and institutions to more fully promote the respect, beneficence, and justice that patients deserve.

The Impact of a Brief Meeting on Employer Attitudes, Knowledge, and Intent to Hire

We evaluated the ability of an intervention that consisted of a one-on-one meeting between a vocational rehabilitation (VR) professional and an employer to improve employer attitudes, knowledge, and intent to hire people who are blind or visually impaired. We evaluated the relative effectiveness of two approaches (dual customer vs. educational) and the impact of the VR professionals’ vision status (blind or sighted) on our primary outcome measures and on interest in follow-up. Participants were 59 hiring managers employed by a large company who completed measures at three time points: pre, post, and 4-month follow-up. We found that, regardless of approach used or vision status of the VR professional, the intervention was successful at improving employers’ attitudes, knowledge, and intent to hire. The educational approach resulted in increases in knowledge that were retained at follow-up, while the dual customer approach did not. Improvements in intent to hire were not retained at follow-up, suggesting that ongoing contact with employers will be beneficial to positively impact the hiring of people who are blind or visually impaired. These findings are particularly relevant given the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act’s focus on employer engagement for VR agencies.

A Systematic Review of the Benefits of Hiring People with Disabilities

Purpose We reviewed literature on the benefits of hiring people with disabilities. Increasing attention is being paid to the role of people with disabilities in the workplace. Although most research focuses on employers' concerns, many companies are now beginning to share their successes. However, there is no synthesis of the peer-reviewed literature on the benefits of hiring people with disabilities. Methods Our team conducted a systematic review, completing comprehensive searches of seven databases from 1997 to May 2017. We selected articles for inclusion that were peer-reviewed publications, had a sample involving people with disabilities, conducted an empirical study with at least one outcome focusing on the benefits of hiring people with disabilities, and focused on competitive employment. Two reviewers independently applied the inclusion criteria, extracted the data, and rated the study quality. Results Of the 6176 studies identified in our search, 39 articles met our inclusion criteria. Findings show that benefits of hiring people with disabilities included improvements in profitability (e.g., profits and cost-effectiveness, turnover and retention, reliability and punctuality, employee loyalty, company image), competitive advantage (e.g., diverse customers, customer loyalty and satisfaction, innovation, productivity, work ethic, safety), inclusive work culture, and ability awareness. Secondary benefits for people with disabilities included improved quality of life and income, enhanced self-confidence, expanded social network, and a sense of community. Conclusions There are several benefits to hiring people with disabilities. Further research is needed to explore how benefits may vary by type of disability, industry, and job type.