2018 (1st half) No One Size Fits All: Worker Organization, Policy, and Movement in a New Economic Age

Abstract

Few would quarrel with the view that social and private policies should strive to improve economic outcomes and promote more inclusive practices for the more than 15% of the world’s population that has a disability. The real challenge is iden-tifying how to achieve those objectives. This volume goes a long way in doing so.This new research volume from the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) offers a rich collection of papers providing both new research and thor-ough assessment of what has been learned from prior research and organizational practices. In doing so, this volume provides a sorely needed update to New Approaches to Disability in the Workplace, the LERA volume on related issues published 20 years ago, edited by Terry Thomason, John F. Burton Jr., and Douglas Hyatt.There has been much progress over those 20 years in the economic status of individuals with disabilities and with efforts to more fully eliminate the discrim-ination and harassment they often face. But as this new volume shows, there is much room for further improvement. For example, people with disabilities are half as likely to be in the labor force and earn on average only 63% as much as others (in the United States). More hopeful are the recent efforts of organizations to make use of digital technology to create more opportunities for people with disabilities.As with many economic and social outcomes in today’s world, there is a wide diversity of experience. On the positive side, this volume includes helpful lessons from a number of public and private organizations that have adopted creative approaches. At the same time, the enforcement of well-meaning public policies is often shown to be deficient, and new approaches regularly fail to reach individu-als who have limited means.Let’s hope that the next LERA volume covering the work experiences of people who have disabilities will reveal that the many helpful insights provided in this volume were taken seriously.