Social barriers to successful reentry into mainstream organizational culture: Perceptions of people with disabilities
✍ Scribed by Mike A. Boyle
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 621 KB
- Volume
- 8
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1044-8004
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Heralded as a "sweeping bill of rights" for the disabled (Foster, 1993, p. 2 1) comparable to the most important civil rights legislation of the 1960s (Jordan, 1992;Martinez, 1990), the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) took effect in July 1992. This comprehensive legislation forces organizations to consider for employment a segment of the population that has been underemployed even though it possesses tremendous potential for the nation's workforce.
A 1987 Harris poll revealed that 67 percent of the estimated 43 million Americans with disabilities are jobless and receive some form of government aid. These federal programs and benefits cost in excess of $170 billion annually, yet 82 percent of the surveyed members of the unemployed disabled population stated they would relinquish their government aid in favor of full-time employment (Scott and Baun, 1992).
The intent of the ADA was to redefine the legal concept of discrimination to enable individuals with disabilities to function fully on a competitive, selfsufficient basis (Jordan, 1992). However, the primary focus of organizational efforts relevant to the ADA has been on modifications to structures and the mechanical aspects of compliance, such as removing architectural barriers and reorganizing work sites innovatively to create jobs for members of the disabled population. As a result, little consideration has been given to the social barriers and adjustments that these individuals must overcome to achieve successful reintegration into an organizational workforce where nondisabied individuals make up the majority population (for example, Kleck, 1966Kleck, , 1968;;Comer and Piliavin, 1972;Sagatun, 1985). Indeed, one major study revealed that many physically impaired people find coping with the social meanings FORUM is a nonrefereed section inviting readers' reactions and opinions.