Enabling employment: findings from a qualitative study on disability and employment in Canada, United States, United Kingdom, France and Belgium

Despite the UN CRDP, national anti-discrimination laws, and government employment programs, the ‘disability employment gap’ remains in most countries. This article outlines the results of a research project that examined the factors that enable disabled people to obtain and maintain employment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with disabled employees and entrepreneurs, employers of disabled people, and local experts on disability and employment in five countries: Canada, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium. Qualitative analysis revealed that several factors facilitated employment in all jurisdictions, and that public policies could support or hamper these facilitators. Based on these findings, this article presents three policy recommendations: intensifying ‘disability mainstreaming’ in public policy, reforming government pension programs to ensure financial stability, and establishing stricter anti-discrimination enforcement mechanisms. This article demonstrates the importance of conducting studies that are both multi-national and grounded in qualitative explorations of disabled people’s own lived experiences.