Bridging User-Technology Fit in Employment Decision Support Tools from Two Approaches: Occupational Analysis and Human Factors Context-of-Use Analysis

Individuals with episodic disabilities experience fluctuations in functional capacity over time. They may encounter challenges meeting the physical, cognitive, and sensory demands of their professional roles. These fluctuations can affect self-awareness, self-efficacy, and self-advocacy during complex employment decisions, including workplace accommodation requests and disability disclosure. Decision support tools (DSTs) may structure these decisions from a systems perspective; however, DST outputs may implicitly assume relatively stable functional capacity. We conducted a systematic qualitative synthesis examining accommodation-seeking experiences among adults with episodic disabilities. Findings indicate that fluctuating symptoms and variable functional performance influence engagement in employment decision-making and may expose assumptions about stability embedded in DST design.