Disability and Employment Research: Mind the Gap

This chapter examines the gap in how we study disability employment by examining 130 studies from 2000 to 2022 on employers’ perceptions of employees with disabilities. Most of the studies are subject to social desirability bias, being largely based on employer self-reports. Expressed intention has been shown not to be coincident with employers’ actual behavior. Another gap identified include a lack of generalizability of research studying employers’ perceptions of employees with disabilities. A further gap is that this concept is understudied in the Global South. Researchers are challenged to find data that gets at employers’ actual behaviors. A potential example of such research is provided. The annexed annotated bibliography of extant literature on employer’s perceptions and behaviors towards employees with disabilities is a significant resource.