Bush, K. L., & Tassé, M. J. (2017). Employment and choice-making for adults with intellectual disability, autism, and Down syndrome. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 65, 23-34. Web.
The research primarily focuses on the contemporary status of employment factors in regards to people with intellectual disabilities or ID, which include three distinct groups, such as individuals with idiopathic intellectual disability, people with Down syndrome, and people with an autism spectrum disorder. The purpose of the study is to identify key employment differences among these three groups to find a common pattern or trend in regard the work availability. The methodology was mainly based on utilizing the 2011-2013 databases of National Core Indicator’s Adult Consumer Survey datasets to determine the most influential and differential variables.
The authors primarily used and applied an ordinal logistic regression model to target the overall employment status among these groups. The findings suggest that: “adults with DS had the highest rates of paid community jobs, but adults with ID had the highest rates of choice-making” (Bush & Tassé, 2017, p. 23). In addition, there was a strong correlation between choice-making in the short-term and the overall severity level of the intellectual disability, and thus, it had the highest impact on the general employment status among all groups.
The main strength of the study is the comparative approach in regards to the selection of three categories of IDs. The weakness of the research is the lack of long-term implications of these findings because short-term choice-making does not necessarily translate to the factors of job stability. In addition, the main accentuation is put on community jobs, which can be explained by a more prevalence of programs, which target people with Down syndrome compared to people with an autism spectrum disorder or idiopathic intellectual disability.
Carvalho-Freitas, M. N. de, & Stathi, S. (2017). Reducing workplace bias toward people with disabilities with the use of imagined contact. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 47(5), 256-266. Web.
The study primarily focuses on the examination of the effectiveness of the methodological framework, which is called imagined intergroup contact. The purpose of the research is to make coherent and accurate observations in regards to the usefulness of the given method in improving the overall attitudes of people and organizations toward people with disabilities. The settings are based on organizational and corporate environments, where biases and stereotypical approximations are prevalent in regards to the target group, which is mostly comprised of people with blindness. The methodology revolves around conducting two experimental studies with an effort to identify the key alterations in two main factors, such as changes in support for people with disabilities’ rights through performance belief enhancement and expectations in relation to their work-based outcomes (Carvalho-Freitas & Stathi, 2017).
The findings suggest that imagined intergroup contact can be considered as a powerful tool to effectively improve these two factors, where organizational settings for people with blindness and people with disabilities, in general, become less hostile and biased.
The main strength of the study is the fact that it is comprised of two separate experiments, which yielded similar results. The weakness of the study is the fact that some businesses and organizations will not be able to fully adopt imagined intergroup contact measures since the strategy requires that the imagination-based measures will be put in place. However, there is a wide range of implications of the research, which can include policy-level alterations and human resources management shifts. For example, it is possible to integrate workplace training in conjunction with imagined intergroup contact as a key part of anti-discriminatory policies and company settings. In addition, the given methodology can be further morphed to match the needs for face-to-face interactions.
References
Bush, K. L., & Tassé, M. J. (2017). Employment and choice-making for adults with intellectual disability, autism, and down syndrome. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 65, 23-34. Web.
Carvalho-Freitas, M. N. de, & Stathi, S. (2017). Reducing workplace bias toward people with disabilities with the use of imagined contact. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 47(5), 256-266. Web.