Project R-15701

The future of work for disabled people (Research)

Worldwide, some one billion people have a disability. This number is expected to double by 2040. Since 2006, the United Nations has nurtured the ambition to give these people a place within the mainstream labor market, side by side people without disabilities. How will that ambition be challenged - or facilitated - by the torrent of technological change that is currently proliferating? It seems many "simple" jobs suitable for low-skilled disabled workers are disappearing at high speed. At the same time, artificial intelligence and other technological innovations (e.g., speech technology, online meeting tools) are providing a significantly higher quality experience of work for many. This project aims to shed light on different scenarios of work for a large group of people whose labor market history is one of great inequality and disadvantage, but whose future need not be. In a first work package, we look back at the history of disability inclusion within work, through a systematic literature review. In a second and third work package, we focus on contemporary innovations such as collaborative robots in sheltered workplaces and the "neurodivergence as strength" discourse in IT jobs. In a fourth work package, we fast-forward by closely monitoring the developmental process of 'high-tech' innovations for and by disabled persons who, far from being passive recipients of innovations and care, are considered as active world builders.

01 October 2025 - 30 September 2029