On researching disabilities in the workplace... (in commemoration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities)

Today (Dec. 3) has been designated the International Day of Persons with Disabilities by the UN, which seems like a perfect time to highlight some resources concerning the employment of people with disabilities... Let's start with one that was announced just this morning:

Statistics Canada has issued a new article, "Persons with disabilities and employment," in their Insights on Canadian Society series. Making use of data from the Canadian Survey on Disability, this article looks at employment rates for people with different types and degrees of disabilities. It also discusses the influence of education levels on employment rates, the most common types of occupations, and the perceptions of discrimination among persons with disabilities. Overall, a great place to get a start your research with a solid, statistical overview of the topic before you start investigating the managerial and policy implications. See the Statistics Canada Daily article for the summary version.

For books and ebooks (including many government and think tank reports), try combinations of the following Subjects in the SFU Library Catalogue:

• People with disabilities - Employment
• People with mental disabilities -- Employment
• People with disabilities -- Vocational guidance
• Diversity in the workplace
• Discrimination in employment
• Try this rough search to catch a few of the topics above in one result list.

For more suggestions, check out the research guide we built this term for a class of BUS 360W students who were researching the topic of Autistic Employees.  Many of the same resources and search tips in that guide will be useful for other disabilities. As always, don't hesitate to reach out to your team of business & economics librarians if you are interested in researching this -- or any! -- topic. We are...