Philippine E-Journals

"We are Not Disabled; We are Differently-Abled": A Study on The Lived Experiences of Person with Disability in the Workplace

Erielle Shaine A. Dado | Roxanne F. Pastrana | Mary Joy A. Pacio | Raven N. Pedraja

Discipline: counselling, psychotherapy and occupational therapy

 

Abstract:

There are several studies conducted about the lived experiences of people with disabilities in the workplace, dominated by the quantitative approach, thus giving primacy to the medical view of disability, which neglects the experiential accounts of the individuals. There are also qualitative studies about this topic, but they do not delve deeper into the experiences of PWDs in the workplace. This research aims to explore and understand the experiences of PWDs in the workplace. With the use of the Phenomenological approach under Qualitative Research Design, researchers used a semi-structured interview composed of three (3) sessions of one-on-one interviews, a focus group discussion to collect data from the nine (9) working people with disabilities and secondary data such as theories, laws, models, journal articles and studies. Methodological triangulation was used to compare the data from these two interviews, resulting in several themes: (1) positive company culture; (2) workplace motivation and reward systems; (3) ableism on PWD workers; (4) barriers to mental health; (5) barriers to productivity; (6) employee dissatisfaction; (7) occupational development; (8) PWDs' workplace motivation; (9) coping strategies; and (10) philosophical perspectives of people with disabilities. This study reveals that even though PWDs are one of the most marginalized sectors in employment, it doesn’t mean that they are not able to join and integrate into the mainstream.