untying the knots: furthering decent new employment after the advent of work-limiting disability ...

376 Pages·2016·2.33 MB·English

by  Cameron Crawford

UNTYING THE KNOTS: FURTHERING DECENT NEW EMPLOYMENT
AFTER THE ADVENT OF WORK-LIMITING DISABILITY

CAMERON CRAWFORD

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO
THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

GRADUATE PROGRAM IN CRITICAL DISABILITY STUDIES
YORK UNIVERSITY
TORONTO, ONTARIO

April 2016

© Cameron Crawford, 2016
Abstract

For many years, people with disabilities have been about two-thirds as likely as people
without disabilities to be employed in Canada. The employment rate of some people with
disabilities has persistently hovered at around one-third the rate of non-disabled people.
Financial estimates of the cost of this problem in Canada differ considerably, but are on the order
of many billions of dollars annually. The human costs are also major. This issue is enmeshed in a
tangle of theories about disablement that can point in very different directions in terms of
understanding the nature of the issue, some solutions that would address it, and the policy and
program implications. For example, there is the interplay between disability and people’s age,
gender, visible minority and Aboriginal person status. Different rates of employment flow from
whether people experience impairment effects in the areas of mobility, seeing, hearing, cognition
or emotional well-being; many people contend with impairment effects across several functional
domains. People’s geographic locations and the vagaries of regional economies need to be
factored into the picture, as do the effects of social assistance and other income support
programs. People’s employment history, their needs for job accommodations, and whether those
needs have been addressed, are crucial considerations that can vary according to type of
disability, the nature of the work to be performed, and employer attitudes, values and fiscal
capacity. People’s educational attainment and job-specific skills training also have a major
bearing on employment trajectories. This research begins to untie the knot that binds these
factors into an often-confusing conceptual, policy and program tangle. It identifies some of the
key factors that most strongly predict whether people are likely to obtain “decent work” with
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their first employer or with a new employer after the advent of work-limiting disability. An aim
of the research is to suggest areas for focusing policy and program efforts in order to maximize
positive employment outcomes for such individuals, employers and the broader employment
‘system’. The research draws extensively from scholarly and administrative literature and from
Statistics Canada’s Canadian Survey on Disability of 2012.
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Acknowledgements

I am very fortunate to have been able to complete this lengthy project. I owe many people
thanks for their support along the way. In particular, I would like thank my Supervisor, Isabel
Killoran, who patiently steered this project through sometimes challenging waters and who
provided unfailing encouragement and words of support. To my other Supervisory Committee
members – Thomas Klassen and Robert Brown – I am indebted for wise and practical counsel
and for helping to shape the final version of this document. I’d also like to thank Dennis Raphael
and Geoffrey Reaume for supervising my comprehensive examinations and Nancy Halifax, who
is the Director of the Critical Disability Studies Program at York and whose leadership has been
invaluable. As well, without the most valuable work of the Statistics Canada Analysts with
whom I’ve had the good fortune to work at the Research Data Centre in Toronto, the reams of
statistical data that this research has drawn upon would never have seen the light of day; in
particular, thanks are due to Angela Principe but also to Dave Haans and Carmina Ng.
Over the years I have had many opportunities to listen to and reflect upon the experiences
of people with disabilities. Marcia Rioux has been instrumental in creating many of those
opportunities and has participated in a great many of the discussions, for which I am most
fortunate and thankful. I also owe Laurie Beachell, Marie Ryan, Al Simpson, Jim Derksen and
many others involved with the disabled people’s movement in Canada a huge debt of gratitude
for the confidence they have placed in me and my work. Michael Bach, has proved not only an
insightful long-time colleague and friend, but a most patient and flexible employer as my PhD
program unfolded. I’m also thankful for the kind words of encouragement of Doris Rajan, Diane
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Richler, Gordon Porter, Melanie Panitch, Kathryn Church and Miriam Ticoll, who had more than
a little to do with my “biting the bullet” and moving forward with the program. Sheila Jennings
provided valuable insights, probing questions and helpful suggestions along the way. Lynda
Myler helped bring greater clarity to some of my ways of stating things and Simon Bild-Enkin
provided most capable and efficient editorial assistance. Adele Furrie has remained a vastly
knowledgeable colleague and friend, for whose insights and support I am most appreciative.
I owe special gratitude to Heather and my children Clara, Jordan, Emily, Andrew, Rachel
and Julia. They have generously supported my pursuit of this research and other projects over the
years, even when it has not been easy for them to do so. My father has been a warmly
encouraging support since the outset of this project. And I have been very fortunate for the
kindly and good-humoured reminders of my friend Liam Carey to try to keep things simple, put
first things first and trust that all will be well.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ii
Acknowledgements iv
Table of contents vi
List of Tables viii
List of Figures x
Chapter One: Introduction and structure 1
Chapter Two: Views from the literature 15
A. Marginalization of disabled people from paid employment 16
B. General socio-demographic characteristics 20
C. Disability-specific characteristics 25
D. Intersectionality 31
E. Disability-based discrimination in employment 32
F. Employers’ concerns and stereotypes 34
G. Potential benefits for employers and workplaces 43
H. Summary 47
Chapter Three: Issues often overlooked 50
A. Disability and the experience of limitations at work 50
B. Disability and the quality of work 53
C. The quality of accommodations and other supports for employment 57
Chapter IV: Towards an explanatory model 59
A. Models from political economy: the “Social Model” and “Socio-Political Model”
of disability 60
B. Models from cultural approaches 63
C. A model from multi-dimensional cultural political economy 66
D. Other salient approaches 67
E. Summary 71
Chapter Five: Improving employment as a matter of rights – Law, policy, and program
instruments 74
A. Employment: A right for all? 74
B. Employment rights in the Canadian context 76
C. Summary 86

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Chapter Six: Statistical methodology 88
A. The focus and rationale for the statistical research 88
B. Statistical data sources: The CSD, NHS, PALS, and SLID. 90
C. Data selection 92
D. Statistical methodology for the demographic and regression analyses 109
E. Weighting 113
Chapter VII: Demographic Analysis 115
A. Labour force status and job characteristics 117
B. General socio-demographic characteristics 124
C. Personal (cultural) and social capital 133
D. Impairment-related characteristics 138
E. Need of supports for employment 145
F. Availability of supports needed for workplace access and participation 149
G. Employment discrimination because of disability 150
H. Reliance on the disability income support system 152
I. The need for general disability supports 154
J. Summary 156
Chapter Eight: Factors that matter most: An application of binary logistic regression 162
A. Target and comparator groups 164
B. Predictors and working hypotheses 165
C. Findings 180
D. Summary 188
Chapter Nine: Key policy and program implications 190
A. The need for clearer policy and program focus 190
B. Setting general policy and program conditions, to be customized as needed 192
Chapter Ten: Conclusion 202
References 209
Appendices 257
Appendix A: Appendix Tables 258
Appendix B: People in the Employment Modifications Module 338
Appendix C: People with “decent work” 340
Appendix D: Industry sector and occupations 356
Appendix E: Appendix Figures 362

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List of Tables

Text Table 1. Numbers of working-age people with and without
disabilities, across labour force situations 108
Text Table 2. Basic socio-demographic characteristics of working-age
people in the target and comparator group, and people without
disabilities 132
Text Table 3. Distribution of people with disabilities across labour
force situations by type of impairment 140
Text Table 4. Distribution of people with disabilities across
employment situations, by degree of impairment 142
Text Table 5. Distribution of all working-age people with disabilities
across all employment situations, by degree of impairment (cells add
to 100%) 143
Text Table 6. Summary of hypotheses, grouped by correspondence
with the Individual and Social Models of disability 178

Appendix Table A.1 Labour force status and job characteristics of
working-age people in the target, comparator and other groups 259
Appendix Table A.2 Distribution of working-age people in the target,
comparator and other groups who worked in 2010, by industry sectors
and occupations 265
Appendix Table A.3 Basic socio-demographic characteristics of
working-age people in the target, comparator and other groups 268
Appendix Table A.4 Living arrangements of working-age people in
the target, comparator and other groups 271
Appendix Table A.5 Education, training and informal social capital of
working-age people in the target, comparator and other groups 272
Appendix Table A.6 Impairment-related characteristics of working-age
people in the target, comparator and other groups 276
Appendix Table A.7 Percentages of working-age people in the target,
comparator and other groups who needed job accommodations or
other supports for employment 281
Appendix Table A.8 Working-age people in the target, comparator and 284
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other groups by whether they have met, unmet or no needs for job
accommodations or other supports for employment
Appendix Table A.9 Perceived discrimination and disadvantage in
employment among working-age people in the target, comparator and
other groups 293
Appendix Table A.10 Income sources and level of employment
earnings among working-age people in the target, comparator and
other groups 294
Appendix Table A.11 The need for aids and devices and help with
everyday activities because of disability among working-age people in
the target, comparator and other groups 296
Appendix Table A.12 Results of the regression model for isolating
factors that predicted the odds that working-age people would be in the
target group instead of the comparator group 299
Appendix Table A.13 Rank-ordered factors that most strongly
predicted whether working-age people with disabilities were in or
were not in the target group 307
Appendix Table A.14 Selected characteristics of people who
participated in and did not participate in the Employment
Modifications Module (EMO) 311
Appendix Table A.15 Median earnings of working-age adults without
disabilities in 2010, and .67 times those earnings, by gender, number
of weeks worked, and whether people worked full-time or part-time
during those weeks 315
Appendix Table A.16 Demographic and other characteristics of
disabled with and without “ILO decent” work 316
Appendix Table A.17a – e Correlation matrix for variables included in
the regression model 318

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List of Figures

Figure 1. Employment rates and relative employment-population
ratios (REPRs) of working-age disabled (D) and non-disabled (ND)
people 19
Figure 2. Rates of full-year, full-time employment, people with and
without disabilities, 2003 – 2011, Canada 20
Figure 3. Highest levels of education of people 16 - 29 years, with
and without disabilities, Canada, 2002 and 2011 25
Figure 4. Employment rates by whether people consider themselves
limited at work because of disability, in the CSD 2012 and PALS
2006 52
Figure 5. Target group overview: People who obtained decent
employment after the advent of work limiting disability 103
Figure 6. Comparator group overview: Showing whether they felt
limited at work and whether they had decent earnings in 2010 105
Figure 7. Gender and age distribution of people in the target and
comparator group 126

Appendix Figure E.1 Demographic and work-related characteristics
of disabled people with and without 'ILO-decent' work 363
Appendix Figure E.2 Disabled people retained in decent employment
after the onset of work limitations - overview 364
Appendix Figure E.3 Disabled people with decent employment and
no work limitations - overview 364
Appendix Figure E.4 Disabled people with less-than-decent work -
overview 365
Appendix Figure E.5. People excluded from the Employment
Modifications Module (EMO), showing whether they felt limited at
work and whether they had decent earnings in 2010 366

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