Young Disabled People

Aspirations, Choices and Constraints

Sonali Shah

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780754674221
• eBook ISBN: 9781134789832
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Social Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Recent policies and government initiatives in many Western countries have strengthened the expectation that young disabled people have the right to be involved in decisions affecting their futures. Many of the choices that are currently taken out of young disabled people's hands, including those relating to education and future employment, are now being viewed as an opportunity to encourage participation in the decision making process. Sonali Shah uses a comparative study of young disabled students within mainstream and special education to determine the influence these recent policies will have on the realization of their long term goals. Young Disabled People: Aspirations, Choices and Constraints will be essential reading for academics in the fields of education, disability studies and employment policy. It will also be valuable to policy makers and teaching and careers professionals.

1 Introduction, Background and Policy

10.4324/9781315546063-1

Work and Society

In all industrialized countries, paid employment is central to the economy of the state and to the status, health and prosperity of the individual. Having a job is one of the most significant issues in any adult’s life and preparing young people for work in subsequent years is often the primary aim of schools. From an early age young people are taught that employment is one of the principal indicators of successful adulthood and social inclusion. They are encouraged to equip themselves with the skills and qualifications necessary to secure good employment in their subsequent lives. They learn, either implicitly or directly, about the consequences of unemployment including the threat of poverty, social exclusion and a lack of political or social status in society.

An individual’s status in economic society is somewhat determined by the expectations and ideologies of many agents of socialization and the psychosocial structure of society (that is, the social factors and individual interactive behaviour that influence the composition of society). Knowledge of an individual’s status indicates their social and political beliefs and their resultant placement in the social system. Furthermore it reflects some of their characteristics, patterns of behaviour, and expectations others have of them. As Vroom (1964) argues, a person’s status greatly influences the way in which other people respond to them. For instance, according to Young (1981), doctors are often viewed as God-like figures – strong, powerful, clever and in control of some kind of magic. This popular, socially approved image of health professionals can, itself, be a barrier for disabled people, who are generally perceived as being too weak and ineffective (French 1986) to succeed as health and caring professionals. It is possible that some of these negative perceptions of disabled people may colour professional attitudes, albeit unconsciously, and thus cause aspirations to follow an otherwise conventional career path to be rejected.

Numerous studies suggest that, like women and people from ethnic minorities, young disabled people are strongly influenced by others’ perceptions of their achievements. Schools and families, the two social structures discussed in Chapters 4 and 5 of this book, have a significant part to play in shaping the choices and aspirations of young disabled people. This is not only in terms of what subjects they learn within the formal school curriculum, but also interaction with teachers and parents, exposure to information about types of work and professional roles, level of inclusion in mainstream society and the number of encounters with disabling barriers. Furthermore what is expected of young disabled people, by various social structures in their lives, does somewhat determine what choices they can make and the extent to which their original aspirations become reality. For instance, if disabled people are not expected to become doctors or nurses, they are unlikely to be taught the relevant subjects at school, or see disabled doctors on the media, or be able to access necessary qualifications and buildings where work experience is located.

Exclusion from the paid labour market is clearly evident. Burchardt (2005) found that the gap between the proportion of disabled and non-disabled people out of work widens as they get older. Around 60 per cent of disabled people of working age are not in paid work, with unemployment rates three times higher than for their non-disabled counterparts, while periods of unemployment have been much longer, particularly for people born with an impairment (Burchardt 2000). One in six of those who acquire an impairment while in paid work lose their job within a year, and a third of disabled people who find paid work become unemployed again within a year, compared with one-fifth of non-disabled people (Burchardt 2000). Disabled people earn significantly less, and approximately 50 per cent of disabled people have incomes below the ‘official’ poverty line of less than half the national average wage, with disabled women particularly disadvantaged (Burchardt 2000; Martin, White and Meltzer 1989). Moreover, a significant proportion of disabled people between 55 and 64 years of age have been moved into early retirement. Disabled people also experience higher levels of underemployment in jobs for which they are ‘overqualified’ (Walker 1982). An analysis of labour market trends in 2001 by Smith and Twomey (2002) indicated that there are fewer than average disabled people employed in Social Class I of the Registrar Generals Classification of Occupations, including managers, senior officials, professionals and associate professionals. Smith and Twomey (2002) report that a high proportion of disabled people are concentrated in semi-skilled and skilled labour such as administrative and secretarial roles, skilled trades, personal services and elementary occupations.

Over the past decade the UK government has implemented a number of strategies for supporting the transition of young people and disabled people into work. The aim has been to ensure that all those who can, will compete for paid employment in the free market (Grover and Piggott 2005). The New Deal for Disabled People was accepted by local authorities as the mechanism for achieving employment targets for disabled people, and Jobcentre Plus and their contracted job broker organizations are formally required to address the needs of disabled people who are unemployed. The New Deal for Disabled People and the Personal Advisor Service, launched in 1998, aimed to provide individually tailored packages of support to help people in work and at risk of losing their jobs through ill health or impairment to move towards and stay in work. The 1995 Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), and its extension in 2005, gives disabled people certain rights in the UK with respect to employment. In particular the DDA makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against disabled people when they apply for a job, or when they are in employment, unless they can show that making necessary adjustments would be unreasonable. In this way the law also defines when discrimination is legitimate. This statute is meant to protect disabled people from discrimination on the grounds of their impairment, and is part of a new focus on helping unemployed disabled people into work whether they are claiming benefits or not. The Disability Task Force, established by New Labour in 1997 to assess the 1995 Act, set up the Disability Rights Commission in 1999 to orchestrate future disability discrimination policy.

Other recent government initiatives, such as the Department of Work and Pension’s (DWP) Access to Work and Pathways to Work schemes, offer a package of support to help disabled people return to the workforce or to retain people who become disabled while in employment. Employers can use Access to Work to eliminate the potential costs of employing disabled people, costs that would put them at a disadvantage when competing for employment with non-disabled counterparts (Grover and Piggott 2005).

Young People and Society

The economic future of society critically depends on the success of the young people of today. Recognizing this, the government has launched new strategies to support the transition of young people into work. The New Deal for Young People, introduced in January 2005 in selected areas and extended to the whole of the UK in April, is a major welfare-to-work programme in the UK targeted at 18–24-year-old unemployed people on job seekers allowance. The aim of the programme is to enhance employability at both the extensive (finding a job) and intensive (longterm employment) margins, while acquiring skills and motivation.

However, the support systems and barriers for young disabled people outlined in the government’s policy agenda may well differ from young disabled people’s perceptions about what facilitates and restricts their educational development and transition to meet occupational aspirations. Disabled people’s experience of early adult life continues to be beset with frustration and disappointment; their original aspirations are rarely translated into concrete occupational or educational achievements (Burchardt 2005). As Professor Al Aynsley-Green, the Children’s Commissioner, states:

When I listen to young people with disability they are very concerned about the future, that they will drop off the cliff into a black hole of what they see to be people who do not understand the issue. (Evidence taken before the Department of Education and Skills, House of Commons, December 2005, available from <http://www.parliament.the-stationary-office.co.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmeduski/723/5120502.htm>)

If young disabled people’s needs are to be met, disabled people need to be able to participate in processes and not just consulted in the development of new services.

There is much evidence that disabled teenagers seem to express hopes and fears about their ‘future selves’ that are shaped less by their impairment status than by other social influences (Norwich 1997). In particular, disabled children’s aspirations about future employment and family life seem to reflect those of nondisabled children (Burchardt 2005; Morris 2002). However, they require specific action to tackle the disabling barriers they experience. Services that seek to support young disabled people in their transition to adulthood can make all the difference to what happens to them. If young disabled people have information about these services, and support to achieve their aspired goals and to combat the ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Editor Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction, Background and Policy
• 2 Career Development and Choices of Young People
• 3 Young People’s Aspirations: What Are They and Why?
• 4 Choices and Opportunities in Mainstream and Special Education
• 5 How Families Shape the Choices of Young Disabled People
• 6 Conclusion: Discussion and Young People’s Ideas for Change
• Bibliography
• Index