Survey Instrument: Work-life Balance for People With Disabilities or Chronic Health Conditions

For everyone, whether a person with a disability or not, it is essential to find the proper balance between work and other life domains, such as family, leisure, and self-care. This study is one of the first to specifically investigate the work/life experiences and strategies of competitively employed individuals with disabilities. Findings from this project may aid understanding of the factors that contribute to individuals with disabilities finding satisfying, sustainable employment and to having longer, more productive careers.The Work-Life Balance study is providing new knowledge about how people with disabilities effectively manage work-life negotiations, what employer policies and practices contribute to positive balance for these workers, and best practices employers and disability service providers can engage in to help individuals with disabilities to find and retain employment.This project is funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research), a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under Grant # 90IF0051-01-00.The survey was administered in May and June of 2014

Serving Justice-Involved Youth with Disabilities

Disability is an important intersectional identity in juvenile justice trends. Youth with intellectual disabilities, developmental disabilities, and mental health disabilities are more likely to be involved in the juvenile justice system or multiple systems, and intersecting identities can increase the risk of justice involvement, particularly when disability overlaps with other identities associated with higher rates of discipline or justice involvement, such as race and lower socioeconomic status. This points to the importance of practitioners being aware of personal and systemic barriers that may influence youths’ experiences and outcomes related to key transition points. Youth with disabilities often require more intense and individualized services during and after justice involvement, and overall have poor post-release education and employment outcomes. Many youth experience challenges in obtaining resources and navigating multiple systems, necessitating additional transition support as they pursue life outcomes. Locating and reaching out to justice-involved youth with disabilities served by multiple systems is a known challenge. Success in this area requires strong collaborations between state and local government agencies, and the community partners and stakeholders who support youth upon release. In this policy brief, the authors discuss barriers and evidence-based practices in locating, serving, and supporting justice-involved youth with disabilities, focusing on efforts to re-engage youth with their former setting (school, home, and community), while also preparing them for future education, employment, independent living, and reducing the risk of recidivism through appropriate resources, services, and supports

Disability, leisure, and work-life balance

ABSTRACT Society is and has always been composed of people of different levels and types of ability. Today, due to legislation and changing attitudes toward disability, the presence of individuals with disabilities is more evident than in decades past. Although their numbers are still considerably lower relative to those of persons without disability, people with disabilities are a part of the American workforce. Like their nondisabled colleagues, they have families, friends, and leisure interests. To date, there has been a paucity of research about the work-life balance of employed people with disabilities. Understanding the work-life needs of these individuals is vital given that the American workforce is aging and the first cohort of jobseekers who have only known life under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) are entering the labor market. This project was an investigation of the lived experiences of eight men and women with observable mobility impairments who were employed in integrated settings. Through individual interviews and brief worksite visits, I sought to understand the significance of leisure and work in the lives of the participants. Further, I sought to understand how the presence of disability influenced their work and leisure lives, and what beliefs, strategies, and relationships contributed to their quality of life and sense of work-life balance. The primary theoretical framework for this study was work/family border theory. This theory emphasizes the challenges of moving between the work and non-work domains of one???s life and the role of relationships and identities in influencing the ease with which this might be done. Additionally, I utilized the theoretical perspectives of social constructionism and symbolic interactionism to consider the complexities of the disability experience. By engaging in interpretative phenomenological analysis, I was able to consider both the individual and collective experiences of participants in interpreting the data. Five major themes emerged from the data; these centered on the importance of identity, work, leisure, relationships, and self-care. Although disability affected all areas of their lives, participants viewed disability as a single attribute or feature; the presence of disability did not define who they were. They spoke of being similar to their nondisabled colleagues and friends, yet spoke of ways in which they were different from others, especially in their youth and as they began to deal with the consequences of aging with disability. They valued work as a way to contribute to society and to connect with other people. Additionally, they identified leisure with family and friends as being important for their physical health and social wellness. Issues of disability identity were noted regarding work and leisure choices, with leisure often providing a space for them to express aspects of themselves that they did not feel were apparent in their vocations. Aging with disability also influenced identity and was associated with a renewed, or in some cases new, desire to connect with other people with disabilities. Maintaining a sense of work-life balance involved consideration of not only work and family issues, but also friends, leisure, and self-care. Further, relationships on and off the job provided support in meeting disability-related needs. The rich lives described by the participants demonstrated the need to get beyond stereotypical views of what it means to be a person with a disability. The findings indicate the need to view people with disabilities holistically, and as individuals. It is my hope that the suggestions offered as a result of this research will enhance the capacity of employers, nondisabled colleagues, disability service providers, and leisure programmers to address the unique concerns of people with disabilities across the lifespan and to create more inclusive work and leisure spaces

Worksite wellness and dIsability: Annotated bibliography

This document represents an attempt to evaluate the current literature available on worksite wellness, with a specific focus on disability issues. The articles included in this document represent three strands of literature that were investigated in order to understand the intersection of disability and worksite wellness. The issues addressed by these articles include the effectiveness and benefits of worksite wellness/health promotion broadly: health promotion initiatives for people with disabilities, as well as laws that impact disability in workplace wellness programs. In evaluating the literature on these topics, it was noted that there is an array of literature that deals with each of the topics, and that demographic and legal changes have increased the availability of literature addressing these issues. The articles listed and discussed below represent just a fraction of the relevant literature; however, they provide a foundational understanding of these issues and are representative of the larger body of related literature

Serving Justice-Involved Youth with Disabilities

Disability is an important intersectional identity in juvenile justice trends. Youth with intellectual disabilities, developmental disabilities, and mental health disabilities are more likely to be involved in the juvenile justice system or multiple systems, and intersecting identities can increase the risk of justice involvement, particularly when disability overlaps with other identities associated with higher rates of discipline or justice involvement, such as race and lower socioeconomic status. This points to the importance of practitioners being aware of personal and systemic barriers that may influence youths’ experiences and outcomes related to key transition points. Youth with disabilities often require more intense and individualized services during and after justice involvement, and overall have poor post-release education and employment outcomes. Many youth experience challenges in obtaining resources and navigating multiple systems, necessitating additional transition support as they pursue life outcomes. Locating and reaching out to justice-involved youth with disabilities served by multiple systems is a known challenge. Success in this area requires strong collaborations between state and local government agencies, and the community partners and stakeholders who support youth upon release. In this policy brief, the authors discuss barriers and evidence-based practices in locating, serving, and supporting justice-involved youth with disabilities, focusing on efforts to re-engage youth with their former setting (school, home, and community), while also preparing them for future education, employment, independent living, and reducing the risk of recidivism through appropriate resources, services, and supports.YTAC_Serving_Justice_Involved_Youth_with_Disabilities.pdf: 36 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020