Employment of persons with disabilities in the open labour market: A scoping review

Persons with disabilities are often disproportionately placed in part-time roles, confined to low occupational levels and face a heightened risk of job loss perpetuating a cycle of underemployment, leaving many to earn below the official poverty line. Despite progressive South African employment legislations, many companies still do not meet employment targets for employees with disabilities.

The scoping review aimed to summarise the literature and synthesise strategies used to employ and retain persons with disabilities in South African open labour market.

Systematic and manual searches of six databases identified relevant primary sources. The first two authors conducted blinded reviews of 2402 titles and abstracts, followed by 482 full-text reviews. Following conflict resolution, 92 sources were included. A content analysis of charted data followed, and the findings were summarised into two categories and 12 codes.

Programmes shown to improve the representation of persons with disabilities were demand-side employment, inclusive recruitment, disability disclosure, reasonable accommodation, employee referral, internships and apprenticeships, return-to-work, supported employment, wage subsidy and partnering with disability organisations. Stakeholder support enhanced implementation and reduced barriers.

Various programmes were adopted to improve the inclusion of employees with disabilities, but their implementation varied across employers, yielding mixed results.

The review highlighted the need for policymakers to strengthen enforcement, for employers to foster inclusive workplace practices and for researchers to expand the scope of inquiry to capture broader dimensions of disability employment. Future research could be conducted under different settings to explore the employment of persons with disabilities.