Proactive disability managers are essential to making disabled workers feel included

Disability managers are essential to stopping ableism in the workplace, as organisations often do not fully enforce disability laws, finds new research by emlyon business school. The study, conducted by Lisa Buchter (Professor of sociology at emlyon business school), explored how disability managers with openly activist agendas attempted to identify and dismantle workplace ableism.

They found that disability laws were often only partially implemented in organisations, and that disability managers are a necessity for deconstructing ableist representations and practices in the workplace. Proactive disability managers helped people to understand the law, stressed the need for recruitment over communication, highlighted relevant accommodations, and provided approaches to deconstruct ableism – diffusing it to all in the organization through training, awareness campaigns, and policies.

Furthermore, the study revealed that several of these proactive disability managers were themselves disabled and relied on their own disclosure to create trust with disabled workers and deconstruct ableist representations and practices from co-workers.

“Despite disability laws being introduced, most companies still do not meet the quota of disabled workers in France. This, in part, stemmed from limited recruitment of people with disabilities and from the failure of organizations to accommodate and retain workers whose disabilities worsened over time. My research sheds light on the need to act at different levels to address the various forms of ableism and emphasises the importance of disability managers to engage in this important work,” says Lisa Buchter.

The research also revealed that some disability managers use their own disability status as a resource to negotiate their positions within the organisation, as they have more knowledge and expertise, and are able to relate to others more effectively. As they have personally experienced how disability stigma can negatively affect careers, their own fears over promotions and experiences with micro-aggressions, disability managers who are disabled themselves go above and beyond to make their companies truly inclusive, according to the researcher.

The study was published in the Journal of Business Ethics.