Description: Working futures? looks at the current effectiveness and future scope for enabling policy in the field of disability and employment. By addressing the current strengths and weaknesses of disability and employment policy, the book asks Is the dichotomy of 'work for those who can and support for those who cannot' appropriate to the lives of disabled people? Does current and recent policy reduce or reinforce barriers to paid employment? What lessons from other welfare regimes can we draw on to further disabled people's working futures? The book is original in bringing together a wide range of policy insights to bear on the question of disabled people's working futures. It includes analyses of recent policy initiatives as diverse as the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, Draft Disability Bill, the benefits system, New Deal for Disabled People, job retention policy, comparative disability policy, the role of the voluntary sector and 'new policies for a new workplace'. Contributions from academics, NGOs, the OECD and the disabled peoples' movement bring multiple theoretical, professional and user perspectives to the debates at the heart of the book.
Brief description: Dr Alan Roulstone is Director of Research in Social and Health Sciences and Reader in Disability Studies at the University of Sunderland. He has published widely on disability and employment policy and has significant experience of researching disability in institutional contexts. Alan identifies as a disabled person and has close links with the UK disabled peoples' movement. Professor Colin Barnes is Director of the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds. Colin has written extensively on disability and policy issues and is author of the seminal Disabled people in Britain and discrimination. He is a disabled person who has done much to transform social model ideas on disability into a reality.
Review Quotes: "This collection of academic research, review and policy papers maps out attitudes of governments and employers towards disabled people, and puts these in both a historical and global context ... Alongside the critiques, there are positive suggestions as to how to redefine disability, impairment and the notion of work itself, alongside ideas for restructuring disabled people's involvement in decision-making and in society at large. ... This is essential for anyone involved in disability policy-making, human resources, supported employment or day services." Community Care