Abstract
Intellectual disability is a very delicate condition that can inflict anyone. This condition doesn’t prevent one from doing the things other people do. This condition should not be the cause for one not to find employment. Intellectual disability should not be a hindrance for one to accomplish his/her goal in employment. This paper intends to discuss the experiences of intellectual disabled in employment. This paper contains a background of policies in employment, literature review on such topic, some findings about the topic and some conclusion and recommendation.
Introduction
The key to the employment relationship is that it enables management to decide detailed work assignments after workers have been hired. Given the huge difficulty of anticipating the problems to be resolved in providing customers with the goods and services they desire, such flexibility is a formidable advantage. Much of the debate about productivity in recent years has focused on how to keep workers as fully occupied as possible, but it has neglected the other problem, of how to be sure that the necessary workers will be available when new customer orders arrive (Marsden 1999). This is addressed by the employment relationship which builds on workers' agreement to be available to undertake certain types of work as and when their employer directs. The rise of the employment relationship owes much to the development of job rules that square the apparent circle of providing employers with flexible job A useful way to think about the employment relationship is to contrast it with alternative ways of organizing economic relations, and to ask under what conditions agents would opt for one form or another. The most common alternatives are the sales contract to provide a specified product or service, some kind of contingency contract in which terms may be adjusted, and the employment contract (Burack 1993). Employment entails having a good relationship between the employer and the employee. Employment has not ensured that a good relationship will be created with all kinds of people. Employment has not changed how people with intellectual disability are treated. This paper intends to discuss the experiences of people with intellectual disability in employment.
Background
UK Employment and policies
Between 1960 and 1980, the UK was transformed from a manufacturing to a service economy (Ehrenberg 1994). The loss of millions of jobs had a big impact on the low-skilled and unskilled male workforce. Unskilled men are more likely to be unemployed than other workers and more likely to remain unemployed for longer (Turner 1995). Women’s employment has risen sharply. This is because of an increase in the number of part-time jobs which appeal to women, who often wish to combine paid employment with caring responsibilities (Sinclair 1997). The collapse of full employment set off a train of rethinking about employment (Smith 2003). The transition to a service-led economy produced numerous social and economic changes and created numerous losers as well as winners. This was a shift from a society built around production to a consumer society where employment is no longer a lifelong job and the labor market has been feminized to the point where half the workforce is female (Cahill 2001). Employment law in the United Kingdom has developed rapidly over the past years, due to UK's membership to the European Union and its historically strong Trades Union movement. The employment law of UK has been described as a creature of Statute or the Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom rather than Common Law. Employment law statues include Employment Rights Act 1996, the Employment Act 2002 and various legislative provisions outlawing discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion and age. The operation of the Employment Law system is broadly similar across the whole of the UK but with some differences with countries near it.
Aims and objectives
The objectives will focus on the problems that should be clarified in order to gather the intended information. The aims and objectives of the study include
Methodology
Type of research
The research process onion of Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill (2003) will guide the study in order to come up with the most suitable research approaches and strategies for this study. The research process onion will be used as a basis to show the conceptualization of the most applicable research approaches and strategies that will lead to the gathering of the necessary data needed to answer the research questions stated, as well as to arrive to the fulfillment of this research undertaking’s objectives. Any approach that attempts to describe data might be referred to as a descriptive method. There is a range of sophistication possible in any description whether quantitative or qualitative. The simplest quantitative description reports the data in raw form. As the description gets more sophisticated, the researcher groups the data and presents it in tables and figures. The use of descriptive statistics is merely a convenient way of description. Data are reported in tables organized to give a suitable overall picture at a glance. These simplify the description and lend meaning to data which in raw form is hard to interpret (Anderson 1998).The research will use the descriptive method to give an account of the experiences of people with intellectual disability in employment. Descriptive research tries to explore the cause of a particular event or situation. In addition, such method tries to describe present conditions, events or systems based on the impressions or reactions of the participants of the research (Brewer & Ware 2002).
Primary and secondary sources of data
The primary source of data will come from surveys and Interviews that will be conducted with the help of the respondents. The primary data frequently gives the detailed definitions of terms and statistical units used in the survey. The primary source of data will give actual responses from various people who encounter different kinds of things. The primary source of data will provide answers not found in written documents or other written source of information. This kind of data will give a further understanding of the situation. After gathering the primary data, the information will be reviewed to see if the data is appropriate for the study. Afterwards the strength and weakness of the data will be evaluated. The secondary source of data will come from researches done by the organization, previous studies and surveys. Acquiring secondary data are more convenient to use because they are already condensed and organized,
Structure for the dissertation
There are different chapters for this study. Each chapter has a different focus for a specific course of action that will benefit the study. Each chapter will bring the study closer to gathering information about the goal of the study. The different chapters will contribute to the success of the study and it can be used as a starting point for further studies. The first chapter was the introduction part wherein general ideas and goals of the study were discussed. The second chapter will be the literature review part. The second chapter used various resources to gather necessary data. This data have a relation to the goal of the paper which is to understand the experiences of people with intellectual disability in employment. The literatures presented will come from books and other sources that are deemed to be helpful in the advancement of awareness concerning the subject. The researcher is the one that will gather the data that will be analyzed for the study. The researcher is the one that will make sure that the data gathered will be appropriate for the study and can help the study achieve its goals. The third chapter will feature the Methodology for the research. The third chapter will focus on discussing the instruments used for the study to be a success. The third chapter intends to discuss the different means used to acquire data and the possible ethical implications of acquiring such data. The fourth chapter will focus on the presentation and analysis of data. The fourth chapter will try to explain what the gathered data means. The fourth chapter will demonstrate how the results will link to the literature review results. The fourth chapter will also include a conclusion and recommendations to the study.
Chapter 2
Literature Review
Intellectual disability
It is, rather, a flexible response to the perennial barriers that have prevented the participation of men and women with intellectual and other disabilities Fueled by the initial success in the 1970s and early 1980s of applications of systematic teaching methods among adults with intellectual disability in work settings, and also by the compelling surge toward normalization, many professionals began to question the very nature of existing vocational services. The new alternatives, by contrast, promoted real work or work that someone else would have to do if the person with intellectual disability did not do it real wages and real workplace with coworkers, not all of whom have disabilities. In the developing countries, the crucial factor for adults is their own livelihood and that of the families who sustain them in the community (Malin 1995). Some workers with intellectual disability might work alongside those with physical or sensorial disability, their respective strengths interlocking in common enterprise. While many pay lip service to the right of people with intellectual disabilities to choose, the exercise of choice has increasingly raised major concerns for both service providers and parents, challenging them to respond to outcomes that may be practically and ethically inimical to them (Harris 2006).Intellectual disability is synonymous to people with an thinking capability that is way below the average. Experts consider this disability as something that is not the type of emotional or psychological disability. Some believe that this kind of disability can be the result of a traumatic brain injury.
Employment
Self-concepts are of course unique to individuals. However, there are major cultural differences which affect the likely order of prominence of elements of people’s selves. For example, those who live and work in more individualistic cultures are more likely to give priority to elements that differentiate them from others: their achievements, perhaps, or their occupation. Those from more collectivistic cultures, on the other hand, are more likely to define themselves in terms of their social relationships: their family, locality, or religion (Noon & Ogbonna 2001). Employment relationships which fail to take account of such cultural differences in selves are unlikely to succeed. The employment relationship is being described as a contractual arena in which employers and employees make promises to each other and try to keep them. There is, of course, no implication that this is an altruistic activity (Davidson & Kregel 1999). Employment is known as a contract between two parties or an agreement to work for an employer by an employee. There are different kinds of workers. Some are part-time and some receive a guaranteed salary, while others are hired for short term contracts or work as consultants. Employment is important for people with disability because it helps a person with intellectual disability to feel that he is included in society. Employment is important for people with disability because it gives them a chance to show that they can stand on their own. Moreover employment will help the intellectually disabled to determine their capabilities and personalities and test out how they can survive in the business and social environment.
Barriers to employment
Unions have a relative advantage over more traditional, community-based labor market intermediaries in that they already have strong links to employers and industry. These links help them to target occupational training that is in demand by employers and facilitate the placement of trainees (Colella & Dipboye 2005). They also enjoy the potential benefits of collective bargaining for the financing of programs and for the establishment of support systems in the workplace. However, given their relative inexperience in recruiting and training populations with multiple barriers to employment, unions face a number of challenges in establishing employment and training programs or, more generally, workforce development initiatives. Unions often have firsthand experience in dealing with the problems of workers who face multiple barriers to employment. The very issues that lead people into supportive housing also pose formidable barriers to employment. There are various studies that stress several common characteristics of the supportive population that can impede prospects for employment. Besides low levels of educational attainment and minimal work experience, these may include mental illness, HIV/AIDS, and substance abuse (Meléndez 2004).
By far the most frequently cited barrier to employment involved difficulties adapting to the routines and expectations of the workplace. Many of these problems fall under the rubric of inadequate soft skills, such as difficulties dealing with authority, weak anger management skills, social skills, or problem-solving skills, lack of motivation, absenteeism, and tardiness. Several people voiced concerns that too much stress or anxiety on the job could cause residents to relapse into substance abuse or experience a worsening of their mental illness. At a resident focus group, two participants said they would not take any job without first consulting their psychiatrists to see if they could handle it. Both expressed concern about having too much stress. These concerns about mental illness extend beyond residents with diagnoses of schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders (Henderson 1996). Another set of barriers clustered around the residents' skills, education, and work experience. Most people lack the basic skills necessary for many types of employment and have little, if any, paid job experience. Most residents have an intermittent or erratic work history little of it in the formal economy. A third barrier to employment revolves around the incentive to work. Many people see little to gain by working and in some cases much to lose (Lipsey & Mucchielli 2002). The employment barriers range from psychological reasons to experience related reasons. The employment barriers are caused by an employers desire to hire worthy personnel. A chunk of the employment barriers can be blamed on the employee and his/her inability to control certain actions that are unpopular to employers. Intellectually disabled persons have barriers to employment such as assessment tests, discrimination and employment laws. Such barriers prevent the intellectually disabled to have a decent employment and enjoy the benefits that one receive when he/she is employed. Such barriers make sure that the intellectually disabled will not find employment even if they have the qualities needed for the job.
Assessment tests as barrier for the intellectually disabled
Preliminary assessment looks primarily for major disqualifying information. Employment office staff may make a preliminary decision whether to send an applicant for more formal assessment, but the manager or supervisor who has requested someone to fill an opening may make the final decision. Both preliminary and final decisions are based on the predictions made possible by the assessments. Final decisions are rarely final; there are often further steps that might result in the rejection of an otherwise desirable candidate. For the sequence to be effective, the assessments should be relevant and competently done (Guion 1998). Characteristics important for one organization, or for one role, may not be highly valued or appropriate for another. Wisdom Procedures are different in private business. Applicants, whether for specific jobs or more generally for employment in the organization, present themselves at any time, in person or by mail. They may come in response to specific recruiting activities, but they are as likely to come because they are seeking employment and, for whatever reason, consider the organization a good prospect. Assessment is likely to take place immediately. Applicants often specify the position or kind of position they seek, and they are rarely considered for other roles (Pickman 1997).
A first screening may be a preliminary interview, completion of an application form, or both. If an applicant is to be seriously considered after the preliminary screening, more rigorous assessment of applicant characteristics follows. This may begin with subjective assessments of behavior during interviews or of information on an application blank or résumé. In earlier times it included writing to or calling people listed as references; now, when organizations are so often sued, calling a previous employer will rarely elicit more than confirmation of the dates of prior employment. More formal assessment procedures used in some organizations include written tests, performance tests, structured and scored interviews, assessment centers, carefully developed personal history forms, and the like. These examples all provide numerical values to represent assessments, values that can be used in research to determine the value of the procedure for the selection enterprise (Prien, EP, Prien, KO & Schippmann 2003).A systematic career assessment process can help individuals gain a sense of their worth, as well as identify gaps in their skills and competencies. Many of the career assessment tools used with candidates can provide information about career interests, values, occupational personality, skills, and achievements. Whether working individually or in groups, a combination of self-discovery exercises and assessment instruments yields rich information for interpretation and feedback (Schneider & Smith 2004).
In some organizations, peer, personal, and boss ratings, applied against specific objective competencies, provide specific feedback for both developmental needs and internal career opportunities. One vital self-discovery exercise is to help individuals develop their personal definition of success. For many employees, success has been equated with job promotions, more pay, upward mobility climbing the corporate ladder. With today's corporate ladder shorter and more crowded at the top, employees must redefine their ideas of success (London 2001). Assessment tests attempt to measure aspects of performance that are evident in a set of simulations or exercises that are representative of the job. However, the relationships among the different dimensions within exercises are higher than the relationships between the same dimensions across exercises. This seems to reflect a natural tendency for raters to think more in terms of overall exercise performance than in terms of dimensions (Brown 2002). This may occur because exercise-based schema, rather than dimension-based schema, is more readily available and easier to apply Assessment tests present a fascinating dilemma for those wishing to understand the processes underlying assessor ratings (London 2001). Assessment tests are used in companies to gain further knowledge of a person and analyze whether that person is fit to be selected by a company. Assessment tests can be a barrier for employment of an intellectually disabled because it focuses on determining not only the physical capabilities of the applicant but it checks on some psychological issues. When the focus of assessment tests is on psychological traits it usually disqualifies a person who has intellectual disability. Assessment tests on psychological traits usually create a notion that all intellectually disabled are the same; this creates a notion that no person with intellectual disability should be hired. The assessment test gives a clearer and wider gap between those with intellectual disability and the other people taking such tests.
Discrimination as a barrier for the intellectually disabled
Discrimination in its most general form is the differentiation among persons for the purpose of making decisions about those individuals and can occur on the basis of legitimate factors. Three key concepts for understanding individual processes that produce discrimination are attitudes, prejudice, and stereotypes. Attitudes traditionally have been conceptualized as having both cognitive and affective elements (Aaltio & Mills 2002). The cognitive component involves specific thoughts or beliefs discrimination in interpersonal behaviors in the workplace can adversely affect members of minority groups indirectly, by creating impressions of discrimination in the workplace, and directly, by interfering with efficiency and productivity. In addition, the avoidant behavior associated with interpersonal discrimination can reduce the support and diminish the quality of mentorship for minority group members relative to majority group members. Because discrimination at the individual level is rooted in many normal processes, such as social categorization, the potential for bias within organizations is significant (Colella & Dipboye 2000).
Although laws, organizational policies, and social norms appear to be effective in controlling overt forms of discrimination toward many groups, these interventions do not apply to all groups that may be victimized by discrimination particularly to members of groups whose stigmas are perceived to be controllable understanding the dynamics of individual-level discrimination, with a focus on both majority and minority group members, offers a more comprehensive view of how bias affects the lives of minority and stigmatized group members. Knowledge of the causes of discrimination and of the factors that promote its manifestation can help guide policies and interventions that can effectively combat individual level discrimination. To address discrimination at the individual level, it is important to structure programs and policies that make people and organizations accountable for their actions, provide accurate assessment of patterns of bias, and initiate action to eliminate biases without necessarily demonstrating intentionality or eliminating all other possible explanations (Fishbein 2002). Alternatively, employment situations can be structured to emphasize the importance of other identities that reduce the salience of social categorization based on race, sex, or other stigmatizing characteristics and redirect the forces of in group bias to improve inter group attitudes and productivity within an organization. Clearly, despite substantial progress in addressing open forms of discrimination, discrimination is not yet a thing of the past. Discrimination, based on demographic characteristics, can result in a more informal manner from the friendships and social networks that emerge in an organization (Karake-Shalhoub 1999).
Even when not officially sanctioned by organizations, the formation of ingroups/outgroups can define who has access to information and other resources needed to effectively perform in a job. Moreover, individuals who are commonly different from the majority in the organization, such as racial minorities, women, disabled persons, older individuals, and gays and lesbians, can be excluded from these informal relationships. Additionally, early in one's career, dissimilar individuals who are not a part of the in group may lack the mentoring that is often important to achieving success within organizations (Horne 1992). Allowing unearned privilege to persist in organizations not only reinforces a system of domination and institutional discrimination, but also may also reinforce interpersonal discrimination. Because differences such as race and gender have been socially constructed to be meaningful in relationship to other attributes such as competence or worth, our group identities not only can become opportunities for privilege, but also cues for interpersonal discrimination. Interpersonal discrimination reflects discrimination that involves avoidance, distancing, and exclusion based upon a person's group identity (Griffin & O'Leary-Kelly 2004). Discrimination happens everywhere and to all types of people. Discrimination is known as the treatment towards individuals that is based more on class or category rather than individual merit. It is usually associated with the concept of prejudice. Discrimination is a barrier on employment to those intellectually disabled because it creates a stereotype to all intellectually disabled people. A company would discriminate against an intellectually disabled because of the things that were being said against them and because of the idea that intellectually disabled would be more like a liability to the firm instead of an asset. Discrimination separates those intellectually disabled to those who don’t have such condition. Once divided the firm focuses on those who are not intellectually disabled and ignores the people they believe are intellectually disabled.
Labor Laws as a barrier for the intellectually disabled
Workplace rights in effect in any workplace should be publicly disclosed and be provided to job applicants before they are hired. Like rights presently granted by statute or obtained in collective contract, but unlike enterprise rights, all workers' rights should be clearly and publicly stated. No good public purpose is served by the present practice of making workers' rights secret, mysterious, and proprietary (Cooke 2003). Access to information about such rights is clearly crucial for job holders and job seekers to be able to evaluate alternative employments, yet much evidence suggests that workers typically know little about the basic rights attached to the jobs for which they have been hired. Withholding such information hurts workers and distorts and impairs the functioning of the job market. Workplace rights should be joined with an enforcement system that fosters quick, simple, inexpensive, and legitimate dispute resolution. Again, the experience with collective contracts, statutory provision, and enterprise rights provides an instructive guide. Collective bargaining tends to produce grievance and arbitration mechanisms that have several desirable characteristics. These mechanisms for resolving disputes can be administered by the partners themselves (Edwards 1993).
When further adjudication is required, a professional arbitrator, chosen according to a prearranged scheme, hears the case. The arbitrator's decision is binding, preempting a lengthy appeals process. Arbitrators base their decisions on the case precedents as they evolve out of contract administration. The arbitration process tends to promote negotiated settlements and is quick and comparatively inexpensive. Arbitration cases are heard under less restrictive and formalistic rules than those required in courts and they are more accessible to ordinary people. Their outcomes are more likely to be accepted as legitimate by the contracting parties (Wilson 1993). The costs of dispute resolution fall on the parties themselves, not the taxpayer, with useful incentives deriving there from. Recourse to courts is minimal, or at least it was before the collective-bargaining system began to break down. Dispute resolution with statutory provision and enterprise rights is less satisfactory, though for opposite reasons. Lack of enforcement of labor laws is much more abstract and thus more difficult to identify than the presence of a specific government program offering a subsidy where a firm meets certain terms and conditions. However, proving material injury, while difficult, would not be impossible and has the substantial benefit of addressing economic effects of low labor standards on an individual basis (Dabir-Alai, Odekon & Singer 1998).
Through the appointment of hostile regulators, interpretations of labor law generally unfavorable to unions and the system, and other measures, critics signaled their unwillingness to sustain that regime. The political triumphs of the modern conservative movement created a generally hostile public attitude toward unions, regulation, and the institutional relationships on which the postwar rights regime had been based (Compa & Diamond 1996). The law has a well-established role in securing equal opportunity in the workplace. By prohibiting discrimination in the composition and the treatment of a workforce, the law of equal employment tends to make workplaces more heterogeneous and less stratified on the basis of race, sex, and other traits that have historically shaped individuals' employment opportunities. It tends to produce workplaces that are more integrated and more likely to foster constructive inter group bonds. An important component of a strategy for building the civic potential of the workplace lies in the already well-developed legal effort to make workplaces more egalitarian particularly along lines of race, ethnicity, and sex (Estlund 2003). Labor laws try to address the rights of the workers and the restrictions being imposed to working people and their organizations. Such law tries to bridge the relationship between trade unions, employers and employees. Labor laws arose due to the never ending demands of workers for a standardized policy towards them. It also arose due to the workers' right to organize, and demands of employers to make sure that the workers have restrictions. Labor laws are supposed to help intellectually disabled to find a suitable employment. In some cases the purpose of labor laws are ignored. Some labor laws can be used as a barrier by employers. Some labor laws give employers the leeway to decline any application by someone who has intellectual disability. Some labor laws cause more problems to the intellectually disabled. Other labor laws have loopholes and these loopholes are used to decline the employment of intellectually disabled. If a labor law has a condition that employees should be healthy, some organizations would use this as an excuse not to accept those who are intellectually disabled.
Chapter 3 Qualitative and quantitative research evidence
Qualitative and Quantitative methods were used in the study. Surveys and experiments are probably the main vehicles of quantitative research. The analysis of previously collected data, like official statistics on crime, suicide, unemployment, health, and so on, can be subsumed within the tradition of quantitative research (DeMarrais & Lapan 2004). Quantitative research’s goal is to make use of mathematical data to understand natural phenomena. Quantitative research develops instruments and methods for measurement; create experimental control and manipulation of variables; collect empirical data create Models to analyze data and use such model to evaluate results. In some instance (Bryman 1995). Quantitative research allows the use of proxies as temporary replacements for quantities that cannot be directly measured. The proxies only reconfigure a certain amount of the variance of the original quantities. Quantitative research methods permit a flexible approach to gathering data. Quantitative research was done through a survey conducted with different people who relates to people with intellectual disability. Qualitative research intends to find theories that would explain the relationship of one variable with another variable through qualitative elements or components in research. These qualitative elements do not have standard measures; rather, they are behavior, attitudes, opinions, and beliefs. Quantitative research was done through research of books that narrate the ideas and experiences of people with intellectual disability. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are helpful for the goals of the study and can gather the needed data for the study.
Chapter 4: Discussion
Intelligence, like so many attributes, is not observable: it is an inference about the nature of people or their characteristics from observations of individual differences. In this instance the conjecture relates to certain classes of behavior: problem solving skills, knowledge, or in our cultures, variations in school performance and academic attainment. There is no doubt that there are such individual differences (Butler & Parr 1999). The key question is whether or not these behaviors are a consequence of something real in people that give rise to the performance differences or whether intelligence is simply an abstraction with pseudo-explanatory powers. For many, it is something real, something that varies quantitatively on a dimension from low to high or little to much, although what it is will also vary within a group of theorists It was clear that tasks to provoke the operation of intelligence needed to tap higher mental processes involving reasoning, problem solving and other complex thinking and knowledge, that such tasks needed to be administered in a systematic manner to ensure objectivity. The competing policy objectives which characterized the asylum era reflected confusion over the nature and treatment of intellectual disability (Read 1997).
While elements of a humane approach were occasionally evident, the era as a whole was characterized by discourses of defect, deviance and threat. Intellectual capacity was increasingly viewed as quantifiable, hierarchical and mainly hereditary. Much of the research on the nature of intelligence was conducted in close association with the asylum managers, who often used the residents as their research subjects. This produced a remarkable degree of circularity of discourse, evident in the close fit between the succession of uses for the asylum and the shifting lexicon of rhetoric, classification, diagnosis and therapy. The medical model of disability then has been seen as a mechanism by which people with mind and body differences have been categorized and responded to by a Western society which increasingly pathologies certain peoples, and is particularly associated with the rise of medical science (Bull & Carson 2003). Research undertaken from a medical model perspective has had some value, often in relation to the development of specific bodily and sensory technologies which can improve aspects of daily life for some people with impairments. Research from this perspective has also, on occasion, involved some limited recognition of the role society plays in constructing the problems of people with impairments as disabled. However, such recognition has rarely extended to a full questioning of the social categorization of disability or the complexity of disabled people's lives. In recent years disability theorists have put forward a new social model of disability which attempts to address these issues, and which has been closely allied to political fights for anti-discrimination legislation and civil rights (Armstrong & Barton1999).
At the centre of the new social model have been useful definitions of impairment and disability. There is no doubt that disabled people are in a disadvantaged position in relation to employment in Britain. More disabled people are unemployed, in lower status occupations, on low earnings, or out of the labor market altogether, than non-disabled people. However, it is less clear why this situation has occurred, how it happens and what makes change so difficult. There is a consensus that of the two million disabled people of working age in Britain, only 700,000 or 30 per cent are in employment. Further, disabled people are over-represented in lower skilled work and under-represented in higher status jobs. As a consequence they earn significantly less than able-bodied employees (Breen, Cordner & Plueckhahn 1997). Why are disabled people in such a disadvantaged position in employment? There are two main explanations: first, that disabled people's problems of impairment combined with the attitudes of employers exclude disabled people from employment; second, that disabled people are excluded from employment because of spatial and institutional barriers in the workplace, which are the result of the oppression of disabled people in Western capitalist society. The first explanation is focused very much on the individual disabled person and their direct relationship with the employer. In this understanding, it is the individual's problems of impairment that determines their level of employment capability and they are chiefly responsible for their exclusion from employment.
The second explanation attempts to identify the underlying processes which exclude disabled people from employment and the perceived inability of the potential disabled employee. This explanation proposes that the workings of the economy produce disabled people as abject thus society excludes them (Crewe & Vash 2004). After data collection the next thing to be done is data presentation, interpretation and analysis. It is important that the research output be presented in an organized, coherent and understandable manner so that those who will read the research can propose important decisions about the results of the study. The participants’ responses are vital and much needed to achieve the objectives of the study. To achieve the objectives is to get the necessary and reliable information regarding the experiences of people with intellectual disability in employment. The participant’s responses will give the necessary information to find a logical solution for the study’s problem; it can also assist in providing a reachable recommendation and course of action. The following presents some of the experiences of intellectually disabled in employment. 40.91% of the respondents strongly agreed with the notion that the intellectually disabled are discriminated. 20.45% of the respondents agreed with the notion. 15.91% of the respondents were either neutral or disagreed with the notion. 6.82% strongly disagreed with the notion. This shows that discrimination still exists especially with those who are intellectually disabled. This shows that discrimination is still a problem not only in the social environment but in the workplace as well.
40.91% of the respondents strongly agreed to the notion that the intellectually disabled are given stereotypes that is why they can’t have employment. 45% of the respondents agreed to the notion. 15.91% were neutral on the notion. 11.36% either disagrees or strongly disagrees to the notion. This further proves that a person who has intellectual disability is being looked down. 50% agreed to the idea that employment laws don’t help the plight of those who are intellectually disabled. 29.41% strongly agreed to the idea. 26.47% are neutral to such idea. 11.76% either disagrees or strongly disagrees to the idea. To most respondents the employment laws has not proven its worth to the intellectually disabled in the aspect of employment. For the majority of the respondents the employment laws haven’t given much assistance in changing the plight of the intellectually disabled in employment. For the majority of the respondents the current employment laws have only given assistance to some and it does not include the intellectually disabled.
36.36% of the respondents agreed with the idea that there are some misconceptions about persons who are intellectually disabled. 27.27% of the respondents strongly agreed to the idea. 20.45% of the respondents are neutral with the idea. 9.09% of the respondents strongly disagreed with the idea. 6.82 disagreed with the idea. The respondents believe that people misconceive the intellectually disabled. They think that some people misconceive the intellectually disabled as ones that they are useless and should not belong to any organization. 27.27% of the respondents either agree or are neutral to the idea that laws can be made to change the plight of the intellectually disabled. 22.73% of the respondents strongly agreed with the idea. 15.91% disagreed with the idea. 6.82% of the respondents strongly disagreed with the idea. 50.87% of the respondents disagreed with the belief that the intellectually disabled don’t need employment. 40.87% of the respondents strongly disagreed with the notion. 6.09% of respondents were undecided on the statement. 2.17% agreed with the statement. Just like other people the intellectually disabled needs to have employment. Although there was a small group who agreed with the statement majority of the respondents still wants to have employment.
Summary of findings
The respondents strongly agreed with the notion that the intellectually disabled are discriminated. This shows that discrimination still exists specially with those who are intellectually disabled. The respondents believe that intellectually disabled are set aside because of their condition and not because of their inability to perform the job. The respondents strongly agreed to the notion that the intellectually disabled are given stereotypes that is why they can’t have employment. This further proves that a person who has intellectual disability is being looked down. Stereotyping can be in the form of picturing the intellectually disabled as someone who thinks out of this world and acts very differently from others. The respondents believed that employment laws don’t help the plight of those who are intellectually disabled. For the majority of the respondents the employment laws haven’t given much assistance in changing the plight of the intellectually disabled in employment. The respondents agreed with the idea that there are some misconceptions about persons who are intellectually disabled. They think that some people misconceive the intellectually disabled as ones that they are useless and should not belong to any organization. The respondents are not sure whether laws can be made to change the plight of the intellectually disabled in employment. The respondents disagreed with the belief that the intellectually disabled don’t need employment. Just like other people the intellectually disabled needs to have employment. Although there was a small group who agreed with the statement majority of the respondents still wants to have employment.
Conclusion
Employment has not ensured that a good relationship will be created with all kinds of people. Employment has not changed how people with intellectual disability are treated. Intellectual disability is synonymous to people with a thinking capability that is way below the average. Employment is important for people with disability because it helps a person with intellectual disability to feel that he is included in society. Employment is important for people with disability because it gives them a chance to show that they can stand on their own. Moreover employment will help the intellectually disabled to determine their capabilities and test out how they can survive in the business and social environment. The experiences of the intellectually disabled in employment includes discrimination, stereotyping, unhelpful laws and misconceptions about them. Such experiences give the intellectually disabled difficulty in looking for a job. This adds to the barriers of employment that they encounter. The experience of the intellectually disabled in employment create a difficulty for them to achieve their goals for employment.
Recommendation
To change the plight in employment of persons who have intellectual disability there must be a wide campaign to change one’s outlook on them. Various methods of information campaign programs should be used to change the perception on those who are intellectually disable. The information campaign programs would help the intellectually disabled to finally achieve their goal of acquiring employment. The information campaign programs will help the intellectually disabled to be accepted in society.
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