Prelims

Disability and the Future of Work

Research in Social Science and Disability

Series Editors: Allison C. Carey and Sara E. Green

Recent Volumes:

Research in Social Science and Disability Volume 16

Disability and the Future of Work

Edited by

Fitore Hyseni

Syracuse University, USA

Lisa Schur

Rutgers University, USA

Douglas Kruse

Rutgers University, USA

And

Peter Blanck

Syracuse University, USA

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

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First edition 2025

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ISBN: 978-1-83549-006-8 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83549-005-1 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83549-007-5 (Epub)

ISSN: 1479-3547 (Series)

Fitore Hyseni, PhD, is the Director of Research at the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI), Syracuse University. She has more than a decade of experience researching socio-spatial exclusion of marginalized populations, including people with disabilities. She currently serves as the Project Director of the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR)-funded Disability Inclusive Employment Policy Center and as a lead investigator on the Employer Disability Practices Center. Her most recent research project documented disability discrimination in the US rental market using the correspondence audit methodology. She also leads and oversees other randomized control trial (RCT) testing interventions to improve financial inclusion and literacy of people with disabilities and access to workplace accommodations.

Lisa Schur, PhD, JD, is a Professor and the former Chair of the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers University, where she teaches Employment Law and Labor Studies. Her research focuses on the economic, political, and social inclusion of people with disabilities, particularly their political participation and employment experiences and outcomes. Her work has appeared in many journals including Industrial Relations, Political Research Quarterly, Behavioral Sciences and the Law, Disability and Health Journal, Women and Politics, British Journal of Industrial Relations, and the Stanford Law and Policy Review. She has coordinated three national surveys on disability and voter turnout following Presidential elections. Her work has been funded by grants from the US Election Assistance Commission, Office of Disability Employment Policy, NIDILRR, Social Security Administration, and New Jersey Developmental Disabilities Council.

Douglas Kruse, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, MA, and a Research Fellow in the IZA Institute of Labor Economics in Bonn, Germany. He served as Senior Economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers in 2013–2014. His research has focused on the employment and earnings effects of disability and the causes, consequences, and implications of employee ownership and profit sharing. He has published over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals and books and served as an Editor of the British Journal of Industrial Relations. He has testified four times before Congress on his economic research, authored or coauthored three US Department of Labor Studies, and served on the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities.

Peter Blanck, JD, PhD, is a University Professor at Syracuse University and Chairman of the BBI. Dr Blanck is the Principal Investigator for the NIDILRR-funded Disability Inclusive Employment Policy Center. He has written over 200 articles and books on the implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Rehabilitation Act, and related federal and state laws and policies, and he has conducted extensive empirical study of disability employment law and policy. His work has been cited by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in its rules and regulations for the employment policy provisions of the ADA, and he has testified before Congress and state legislatures on disability policy. He is a former member of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. He was a Switzer Scholar and in 2015 received the Distinguished Service Award from National Association of Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers for lifetime achievement in the field.

Laurin E. Bixby, PhD, is a Research Scientist at the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at Brandeis University. She completed a PhD in Sociology and Master's degree in statistics at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr Bixby was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar and Summer Fellow at Mathematica Policy Research. Her work illuminates how structural ableism and other systems of oppression jointly harm disabled people and produce inequities across a variety of systems, including health care, incarceration, and long-term care systems. Through her research, Dr Bixby aims to inform policy and structural changes that end systems of harm and advance Disability Justice.

Gus Budiarta is a Research Associate at the Great Lakes ADA Center at the University of Illinois Chicago, specializing in disability policy research and knowledge translation. He has extensive training in international human rights, international development, and disability rights and policy. In the past two years, he has also focused his research on the interconnectedness of suicide and mental health discourse and policy with disability studies.

Kate Caldwell, PhD, is the Director of Research and Policy at the Center for Racial and Disability Justice, a role she tackles with gusto as a disabled researcher committed to ensuring that policy decisions are informed by the voices of those who have been marginalized and disenfranchised. Prior, Kate was a Professor in Disability Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) specializing in interdisciplinary mixed-methods research in disability rights, employment, and social policy. She is known for her work on participatory intellectual disability research methods, knowledge mobilization, and inclusive curriculum and program design. As a leading expert on disability-entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship, Kate works routinely with policymakers, legislators, and various stakeholders at the Federal, State, and Local levels. She received a BA in Psychology from Colby College, an MA in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences from the University of Chicago, and a PhD in Disability Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

LaWanda H. Cook, PhD, CRC, is a Senior Extension Associate with Cornell University's Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability. Her research focuses on well-being and inclusion in work and leisure settings as well as how intersections of disability, race, gender, and other characteristics influence outcomes within juvenile justice, public vocational rehabilitation, and other systems. Her publications address topics such as disability management, workplace bullying, work–life balance, and system involvement of youth with disabilities. Through her scholarship, she seeks to improve understanding of the lived experiences of multiply marginalized people and to illuminate the need for systemic change.

Mariana Garcia-Torres, PhD, is a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Disability and Human Development at UIC. She holds a PhD in Disability Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago and has a Master's degree in psychology. She conducts research for the Great Lakes ADA Center and the ADA Knowledge Translation center. Her work focuses on developing educational material for Latinos/Hispanics in relation to the ADA and the rights of people with disabilities. Her research also focuses on education of Latino/Hispanic caregivers of preadolescents with disabilities and topics of sexuality, puberty, and preadolescence. She teaches courses related to Latino culture and Disability.

Lauren Gilbert is a PhD student at Rutgers University's School of Management and Labor Relations, where her research focuses on the employment of people with disabilities. Before enrolling at Rutgers, she previously served as a research assistant at Georgetown University's Global Social Enterprise Initiative [since renamed to Business for Impact].

Nanette Goodman, MS, is a Senior Fellow at the BBI, Syracuse University. She has over 20 years of experience conducting quantitative and qualitative research on disability policy issues in the United States and in low-and moderate-income countries. Through the lens of public policy development, she focuses on the economic disparities between people with and without disabilities in their financial stability, use of financial services, and the extra costs of living with a disability. She was the Research Director at BBI and, prior to that, at National Disability Institute and Daniels and Associates LLC, Research Associate at Center for Inclusive Policy, Sr Policy Advisor at Office of Disability Employment Policy and a Research Associate at the Cornell University Institute for Policy Research. She has written book chapters, published in peer-reviewed journals, prepared reports for the National Council on Disability, and developed policy white papers.

Robert Gould, PhD, is a Clinical Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Disability and Human Development at UIC. His broader scholarship and interests include domestic and international law and policy, employment, globalization, sustainable development, and issues of human rights and social justice as they pertain to people with disabilities. He has published widely on the implementation of disability rights laws at the domestic and international level in journals such as Disability and the Global South, Research in Social Science and Disability, Disability Studies Quarterly, and Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion. He lectures and teaches courses related to the ADA, disability in world cultures, disability and work, and disability law and policy.

Patricia C. Griffiths, PhD, is a Gerontologist, Health Research Scientist, and Statistician. Her work at the Department of Veterans Affairs and Emory University School of medicine focused on technology-based approaches to improving quality of life in older adults with physical and cognitive limitations. In the NIH R01 Tele-Savvy, she and Dr Hepburn translated an efficacious face-to-face psychoeducational program to tele-implementation for caregivers caring for someone with dementia. Dr Griffiths has developed risk assessment protocols including guidelines on how to provide remote support to caregiving dyads in crisis and coauthored guidelines on the use of technology to deliver mind–body interventions for older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Following her retirement from Emory and the VA, she continued her work of over two decades with GA Tech's Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation where she serves as a Statistician and Methodologist on two Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) (TechSAge and Wireless Inclusive Technologies) and a recently awarded Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) (ACCESS-PD).

Mark Harniss, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the University of Washington Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, an Associate Director of the Institute on Human Development & Disability (IHDD), a PI and the Director of the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD), a PI and the Director of the ADA Knowledge Translation Center, the Director of the Center for Technology and Disability (CTD), and the Director of Education for the Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences (CREATE). He is a core faculty member in the Rehabilitation Sciences Doctoral Program and the Disability Studies Program. His research and teaching focus on implementation science, knowledge translation, accessibility, and disability law and policy.

Frances H. Harris, PhD, is a Research Scientist and an Anthropologist at the Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI) at Georgia Tech. Dr Harris has over 22 years of experience in rehabilitation research. Her interests and expertise include the measurement of activity and participation outcomes for individuals with disabilities, the cost effectiveness of assistive technology interventions, workplace accommodations, and the employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities. She is also experienced in mixed-methods research design. Most recently, she is working toward better understanding the relationship between disability, socioeconomic factors, and contingent employment practices among traditionally marginalized people in the United States.

Sarah Parker Harris, PhD, is a Professor, the Associate Head, and the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Disability and Human Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her interdisciplinary areas of scholarship include Disability Studies, Social Policy, and Sociology. She is experienced in qualitative research methods, mixed-methods systematic review, knowledge translation practices, program evaluation, and policy analysis. Her research crosscuts areas of disability studies, employment and workplace inclusion, entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship, comparative social policies, civil rights laws, knowledge translation, community participation, and diversity, access, and inclusion. She teaches in the undergraduate and graduate programs in the department with an emphasis on social theory, disability policy and law, and research methodologies.

Rooshey Hasnain, EdD, is a clinical Associate Professor with the UIC Department of Disability and Human Development, Institute on Disability and Human Development, Undergraduate Rehabilitation Sciences Program, the LEND Fellowship Program and the Honors College. For more than 25 years, she has developed innovative and culturally tailored initiatives that focus on advancing disability justice with individuals, families, community providers, and systems across different life domains and sectors. Her disability-centered work involves research, academic curricula, coalition building, and grassroots organizing with partners and allies. Her development and implementation of disability-inclusive grants involving historically underserved immigrants and refugees with disabilities have garnered state- and national-level recognition. Her interdisciplinary work spans projects that emphasize disability advocacy, cultural brokering/cultural competency, consumer and family empowerment, participatory action research with immigrants and refugees and their families. She serves on multiple boards and in professional associations whose agendas focus on disability inclusion, both locally and globally.

Katharina Heyer, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. She is an interdisciplinary scholar of disability law and politics, disability human rights, and comparative social movements. Her research has examined the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in a variety of countries (focusing on the United States, Japan, and Germany) as well as the mobilization of disability rights and disability justice movements. While her primary research focus has been on the implementation of human rights guarantees in the areas of inclusive education and employment rights, her publications have also covered the areas of disability studies, eugenics, prenatal testing, selective abortion, and death and dying politics. The research presented in this article is part of a multi-country research project on the future of sheltered work and the subminimum wage in light of the CRPD's right to work mandate.

Jo Ingold, PhD, is a Professor of Human Resource Management at the Australian Catholic University, Melbourne (Australia). Her research lies at the nexus of human resource management (HRM) and public policy. Specifically, she has focused on the role of businesses and employment and skills service providers in workplace inclusion, including disability inclusion. She has published a number of articles and chapters on disability and employment and has lived experience of disability. She is the Editor of the academic journal Work, Employment and Society. She coedited the first book on the topic of Employer Engagement in Active Labour Market Policies (Bristol University Press, 2023).

Salimah LaForce, MS, is a Senior Research Scientist and a policy analyst at the Georgia Institute of Technology's Center for Advanced Communications Policy. She specializes in policy research, identifying and describing intended and unanticipated implementation outcomes. Her work spans a variety of topic areas, including improving employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities, increasing accessibility and usability of information communications technologies, building capacity for inclusive emergency response efforts, and cultural competency in the delivery of general and mental healthcare services. She has 17 years of experience conducting user needs and experiences research and utilizing qualitative and quantitative study results to inform policy and practice recommendations. Salimah's efforts to translate research findings into practice are centered on her participation in the federal rulemaking process and the provision of evidence-based policy and practice recommendations. Salimah has authored 130 journal articles, book chapters, federal regulatory agency filings, research reports, conference papers, and presentations.

Maureen A. Linden, MSBME, is the Executive Director of the Center of Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI), and a Principal Research Engineer. Ms. Linden has over 30 years of experience in rehabilitation and assistive technology research, development, and service delivery. Her areas of expertise include accessible emergency communications using wireless technologies; vocational rehabilitation and job accommodations; accessible postsecondary education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields; seating and wheeled mobility; and pressure sore prevention. She has provided assistive technology services directly to people with disabilities participating in vocational rehabilitation. Ms Linden is a former president of the RESNA, Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America, as well as a RESNA Fellow. She holds degrees in electrical and biomedical engineering from the University of Virginia.

Michelle Maroto, PhD, is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Alberta. Her research interests include social stratification, labor and credit markets, and disability studies. Her projects address the many dimensions of wealth inequality, the complicated dynamics behind social class in Canada, and labor market outcomes for people with different types of disabilities. She recently coedited the Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Disability with David Pettinicchio and Robyn Brown.

Nathan W. Moon, PhD, is a Principal Research Scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and he serves as the Director of Research of the Center for Advanced Communications Policy (CACP) at Georgia Tech. His research focuses on increasing access to education and employment for people with disabilities, with specializations in the accessibility of information and communications technologies (ICTs), workplace accommodations and employment policy, broadening participation in STEM education, and program evaluation. Dr Moon also was the Principal Investigator for a Field Initiated Project on the Contingent Employment of People with Disabilities (FIP-CE). This five-year research project was funded by the NIDILRR. FIP-CE investigated the participation of individuals with disabilities in contingent employment arrangements, including jobs obtained through web-based or app-based platforms associated with the nascent “gig economy” associated with services such as Uber, Lyft, and Handy.

Zachary Morris, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Stony Brook School of Social Welfare, USA, where he conducts policy relevant research on the financial and social inclusion of persons with disabilities. Dr Morris is the Principal Investigator for a National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research grant, focusing on out-of-pocket costs and unmet needs for disability-related goods and services in the United States. He is also a Senior Associate at the Center for Inclusive Policy and holds a PhD and an MSW from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MPhil in Comparative Social Policy from the University of Oxford.

Sumithra Murthy, PhD, is a Mixed-Methods Researcher with a strong research and practice background in disability, family support and caregiving for people with disabilities, health disparities, and culturally appropriate interventions and implementation. Her extensive professional experiences include research management of multiple multi-year center-based research projects, quantitative and qualitative research methods, advanced statistical applications, grant writing, implementation of Institutional Review Board (IRB) policies and procedures, administrative operations, and mentoring students in research projects. She strongly believes in contributing to improving the lives of those most impacted by social inequities through application of research findings. Her research interests include Caregiving and Family Support for People with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities, Health and Healthcare Disparities, and Health Promotion.

Arzana Myderrizi, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto. Dr Myderrizi's research centers on K-12 special education policy, disability law and policy, the economics of education, and educational equity for students with disabilities. She holds a PhD in Public Administration and Policy from the University at Albany, State University of New York, and an MA in Economics from Vanderbilt University.

Akemi Nishida, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Feminist Disability Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago and advocates for disability justice both locally and nationally. She uses research, education, and activism to investigate how ableism is manifested in relation to racism, cis-heteropatriarchy, and other forms of social injustice. Additionally, she employs these methods to contribute to disability justice activism. Nishida is the author of Just Care: Messy Entanglements of Disability, Dependency, and Desire (Temple University Press, 2022) in which she examines public healthcare programs as well as grassroots interdependent care collectives and bed-space activism.

Giuseppe Franco Pagano, MS, is a Research Assistant at the BBI, Syracuse University. He holds a journalism degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and a Master's degree in Cultural Foundations of Education and Certificate of Advanced Study in Disability Studies from the University's School of Education. A writer by nature, he has a diverse range of experience. He has worked in state government, written freelance articles for Yahoo and Syracuse.com, and contributed to multiple research centers focused on disability inclusion at Syracuse University. At BBI, he contributes to qualitative data analysis, research articles, policy briefs, and knowledge translation efforts.

Brenda Parker, PhD, is interested in urban equity and how we can create more inclusive and restorative communities. Her work addresses topics such as affordable housing, urban politics, care, and activism and seeks to understand gender, race, and other power relations in cities, governance, and knowledge production. Situated at the intersection of geography and urban planning, her research is informed by feminist and intersectional approaches. She is involved in collaborations with scholars and community organizations aimed at conducting research that informs policies and practice. She is currently working with a diverse group of scholars and practitioners to examine gendered and intersectional inequalities in housing, exploring what interventions might positively impact our most vulnerable populations. Other research projects focus on intersectional and activist experiences of formerly incarcerated individuals and organizations; the experiences of women with disabilities working in governments; and the complex interactions between disability, race, gender, and economic well-being.

David Pettinicchio, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Sociology and in the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, Canada. His work lies at the intersection of inequalities, social policy, culture, and disability. He has written two books on the relationship between the disability movement and social policy. He recently coedited the Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Disability with Michelle Maroto and Robyn Brown.

Morgan Sanchez, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at San Jose State University. She is a dedicated scholar with a PhD in Sociology from the University of Florida, focusing on identity, politics, and belonging. With expertise in both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, she aims to illuminate overlooked perspectives within society. Dr Sanchez is committed to amplifying underrepresented voices in public discourse.

Amy Satterthwaite, OTR/L, earned a Master’s degree at the University of Illinois Chicago while working as an Illinois LEND fellow and is now a pediatric occupational therapist in the Chicagoland area. Amy serves on the board and handles the day-to-day operations of an international nonprofit. In the coming year, she will be traveling to provide therapy services to underserved children and families in Belize.

Frederike Scholz, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Organizational Change and Digital Transition at HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht in the Netherlands. Her academic pursuits primarily focus on issues around diversity, inclusion, and equality in the workplace for minority groups (e.g., topics around disability or neurodivergence), her own personal reflections of working in Academia from a gender and/or new parent perspective, but also the impact of digital transformation in organizations, such as the use and influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies on healthcare professionals. She has employed predominantly qualitative and autoethnographic methods in her research published in Human Relations, Human Resource Management, and Gender, Work, and Organization (GWO) and is an Associate Editor for Culture and Organization.

Koen Van Laer, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Business Economics of UHasselt (Belgium), where he leads the research group SEIN, which conducts research on inclusive and sustainable ways to organize work. Drawing on critical perspectives, his work focuses on disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation and religion at work, the way workplace experiences and careers are connected to power inequalities, and the way “difference” is managed and constructed in organizations. His work on diversity, inequality, and inclusion has appeared in edited volumes as well as in international journals such as Journal of Management, Human Relations, Organization, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, and Work, Employment and Society. He is an Associate Editor at Organization and serves on the editorial board of Human Relations.

Bailey Werner received a Master of Urban Planning and Public Policy with a concentration in Community Development at the University of Illinois Chicago. Broadly, she is interested in housing development and policy and hopes that her work will contribute to the preservation and creation of affordable, accessible, and vibrant communities.

Fatma Altunkol Wise, PhD, has done work at BBI focused on the experiences of people with disabilities, the LGBTQ+ community, minorities in the law profession, and self-employment initiatives of people with disabilities. Her research also examined supported decision-making for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and severe mental illnesses. She holds a PhD in Counselling Psychology from Cukurova University in Adana, Turkiye.

Betul Yalcin is a Managing Consultant at Atlas Data Analysis and Consultancy, Manchester, UK. Her expertise is rooted in education, inclusion, and vocational rehabilitation of disabled people, employment of disabled people, digital inequalities aging, data analytics and comparative social policy analysis. Through the professional and educational life, she involved in numerous activities, projects, and collaborative works in the above-mentioned fields. She has been an academic member of the Academic Network for European Disability Experts (ANED) as Country Expert to Turkey between 2016 and 2019. She has contributed to the 2005 Disability Act and the stipulation of related regulations in Türkiye, alongside formulation of associated policies and action plans. She has published a number of publication and chapters on disability, aging, and digital inequality.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to each of the authors in this volume for their invaluable contributions. We are also deeply appreciative of our colleagues who generously dedicated their time and expertise as anonymous peer reviewers for each chapter. Our gratitude goes to Allison C. Carey and Sara E. Green for their thoughtful guidance and support. Finally, we thank the team at Emerald Press for their support of this series and their dedicated work on this volume.