People With Disability Influencing Sustained Improvements to Employment

This article considers the influence of people with cognitive disabilities on the sustainability of inclusive employment and the culture of workplaces and industry. We applied Gould et al. (2022) analytical framework about building and growing disability inclusion in business to research data collected about creating employment opportunities in aged care. The research found that people with cognitive disabilities in the workplaces and the guiding Community of Practice (COP) influenced managers and coworkers directly and indirectly, through working well when reasonable adjustments were made and positively impacting the practices of co-workers. Conditions making these influences possible were reasonable adjustments, supportive managers and skilled facilitators. The impact was increased employment of people with disabilities and changed workplace cultures to value diversity as contributing to quality aged care. These influences were possible because of the mutual support in the COP to overcome challenges. Implications are that leadership by people with disabilities and managers can influence inclusive employment initiatives to be sustained and change workplace culture.