Employer Attitudes and Practices toward Hiring Justice-Impacted Individuals with Disabilities: Improving Employer Engagement with Vocational Rehabilitation and Workforce Systems
Overview
During this 3-year project, we will conduct mixed-methods, exploratory research in New York state to learn how employers’ practices and attitudes toward justice-impacted individuals with disabilities (JIID) affect these individuals’ employment opportunities and other related outcomes.
Why This Work Matters
Although roughly 25% of working-age adults with disabilities experience some interaction with the justice system, little is known about their post-incarceration employment outcomes. What we do know is that, as separate groups, people with disabilities and JIID each face significant barriers to finding and keeping a job. Thus, our work will explore how those at the intersection of these two identities fare in the labor market.
Our goal is to develop resources and trainings for employers, Vocational Rehabilitation counselors, and other workforce professionals about how this pool of potential workers can contribute to the workforce. The resources and trainings will explain the business case for hiring JIID.
Project Activities
- Quantitative analysis: Analysis of multiple secondary data sources to capture how certain status-based characteristics, including disability status, justice-involvement, gender, and race/ethnicity, work together to shape employment outcomes.
- Focus groups: We will conduct focus groups with New York state employers, DEIA/HR professionals, and JIID themselves to explore the workplace policies, attitudes, and practices that directly and indirectly affect JIID’s experience with finding and keeping a job.
- Expert panels: Once we have completed our quantitative and focus group analysis, we will convene an expert panel of JIID and the professionals who work with them to assist us in reviewing our findings and developing policy recommendations. These panels will ensure that the voices of frontline workers and JIID themselves are included in the research process and policy recommendations.