Recent Studies on Labor Inclusion of People with Intellectual Disabilities

ABSTRACT

Based on the theoretical assumptions of the historical-cultural perspective, we aim to discuss the theme “Recent Studies on the Labor Inclusion of People with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) in the Work Environment” from the survey of scientific publications between the years 2008-2018. These studies point towards the labor inclusion as being a favorable factor for the overall development of these subjects. The survey was carried out in the Portuguese, English and Spanish languages ​​in the journal database of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel/Ministry of Education (CAPES/MEC) in search by subject and in the Web of Science and Scopus Databases, having as selection criteria papers in the areas of intellectual disability, inclusion, psychology and special education. As indicators, the following words were used: “adult and intellectual disability”, “intellectual disability AND work”, “mental disability AND work”, “intellectual disability AND work”, “intellectual disability and work placement”, “intellectual disability and inclusion in the workplace” and “intellectual disability and insertion in the labor market”. We have identified 29 articles directly related to the topic. The most investigated subjects were: “Person with ID in organizations” (7), “Professional training” (13), “Legislation and public policies” (5), “Senses and meanings of work” (3), and “Work, education and family” (1). The results revealed the need for studies directed to the field of Psychology and Education that can offer greater subsidies for the labor inclusion of these subjects in order to collaborate with effective public policies. We point out the pertinence of the development of research that addresses the construction of meanings by the person with intellectual disability on the labor market.

KEYWORDS:
Intellectual disability; Labor market; Labor inclusion

Resumo

A partir dos pressupostos teóricos da perspectiva histórico-cultural, temos por objetivo debater o tema “Estudos Recentes Sobre Inclusão laboral da Pessoa com Deficiência Intelectual (DI) no Ambiente de Trabalho” a partir do levantamento de publicações científicas entre os anos de 2008-2018. Essas pesquisas apontam a inclusão laboral como fator favorável ao desenvolvimento global desses sujeitos. O levantamento foi feito nos idiomas português, inglês e espanhol no Portal de periódicos da Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior/Ministério da Educação (CAPES/MEC) nas buscas por assunto e nas Bases de Dados Web of Science e Scopus, tendo como critérios de seleção artigos nas áreas de deficiência intelectual, inclusão, psicologia e educação especial. Como indicadores, foram utilizadas as palavras: “adulto e deficiência intelectual”, “deficiência intelectual AND trabalho”, “mental disability AND work”, “intellectual disability AND work”, “deficiência intelectual e inserção laboral”, “deficiência intelectual e trabalho”, “deficiência intelectual e inclusão no trabalho”, e “deficiência intelectual e inserção no mercado de trabalho”. Identificamos ao todo 29 artigos diretamente relacionados ao tema. Os assuntos mais investigados foram: “Pessoa com DI nas organizações” (7), “Formação profissional” (13), “Legislação e políticas públicas” (5), “Sentido e significados do trabalho” (3) e “Trabalho, educação e família” (1). Os resultados revelaram a necessidade de estudos direcionados para o campo da psicologia e educação que possam oferecer mais subsídios para a inclusão laboral desses sujeitos de forma a colaborar com políticas públicas efetivas. Indicamos a pertinência do desenvolvimento de pesquisas que abordem a construção de significados pela pessoa com deficiência intelectual sobre o mercado de trabalho.

PALAVRAS-CHAVE:
Deficiência intelectual; Mercado de trabalho; Inclusão laboral

1 Introduction

In this paper, we propose a theoretical-argumentative debate within the historical-cultural perspective pertinent to the inclusion of the person with intellectual disability in the work environment. The work environment as well as the social relations are presented as favorable for the human development, with emphasis on the people with intellectual disability (ID)⁵, object of this study. Regarding the development of people with intellectual disabilities, it is important to consider not only biological factors, but to emphasize the various alternative possibilities conducive to development, including issues related to access to cultural goods (Souza, 2019).

The devaluation of the influence of social aspects on development limits the performance with these subjects, leading to exclusionary practices, stigmatizing, and underestimating their capacity. The term “stigma” refers to an attribute or characteristic considered derogatory, capable of reducing the person to “diminished” (Goffman, 2013).

Brazil has legislation that complies with the basic principles of the Declaration of Human Rights, guaranteeing the right of the subject to work, protecting his/her dignity and free development of his/her personality and the right to education, including professional education (Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil of 1988; Law no. 7,853, of October 24, 1989; Law no. 8,122, of December 11, 1990; Federal Law no. 8,213, of July 24, 1991; Law no. 9,394; of December 20, 1996; Decree no. 3,238, of December 20, 1999; Decree no. 6,949, of August 25, 2009; Law no. 13,146 of July 6, 2015; United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture [Unesco], 1994).

Given the thematic approach to our study object, we highlight three Brazilian laws: a) Law no. 8,112/1990, which assures persons with disabilities to apply for a public tender to fill a position; b) Federal Law no. 8,213/1991, known as the Quota Law, which provides for the hiring of 2% to 5% of persons with disabilities in companies with more than 100 employees, and any act of discrimination in relation to salary or admission criterion associated with the person’s disability; and c) Law no. 13,146/2015, known as the Brazilian Law on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (Statute of Persons with Disabilities), designed to ensure and promote on an equal basis the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms by persons with disabilities, aiming at their social inclusion and citizenship.

Many people with intellectual disabilities (ID) are able to live independently and contribute to their community, including being inserted into the formal job market. However, despite our favorable legislation, data presented by the Annual Social Information Report - RAIS - Relação Anual de Informações Sociais, summarized in Table 1, allows us to verify that people with ID have low insertion in the labor market, since they are listed in penultimate place. This number is calculated by adding people with ID to those with mental disorders, who are also considered legally disabled to fill the vacancies reserved for this segment of the population.

Table 1
Quantitative Evolution of Disabilities (by type) from 2009 to 2016.

Year	Types of disability
	Physical	Auditive	Visual	Mental	Multiple	Rehabilitated	Total of persons with disability
2009	157,805	65,613	14,391	13,120	3,506	34,158	288,593
2010	166,690	68,819	17,710	15,606	3,845	33,343	306,013
2011	174,207	73,579	21,847	18,810	4,144	322,704	615,291
2012	170,468	74,385	26,119	21,317	4,596	33,311	330,196
2013	181,464	78,078	33,505	25,332	5,490	33,928	357,797
2014	192,432	78,370	39,580	19,132	6,708	35,100	371,322
2015	200,794	79,389	46,913	32,144	8,108	35,907	403,255
2016	204,554	80,390	53,438	34,168	7,287	38,684	418,521

Secretaria de Políticas Públicas de Emprego do MTE⁶

People with ID can develop from a collective perspective, through interactions in the work environment with their peers and other social groups, where their potentialities as a social subject are valued. Social interaction is strongly discussed by Vygotsky (1997) as a factor for the development of the subject. According to the author, the social dimension is what promotes and defines the individual in the set of social relations and activities that configure these relations, being the work relevant due to the possibility of enabling this subject to transform both nature and him/herself. Current studies indicate that contexts of interaction that are essentially favorable to the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities are those in which they are considered agents of their own actions, with reflexivity (Mieto, Barbato, & Rosa, 2016).

We will discuss in this paper how the studies carried out over the last ten years have problematized the relationship between the person with ID and the labor market: Are people with intellectual disabilities heard in this context of social inclusion, which is the work environment? What is their self-perception in this context? What are the advances and the theoretical limits pointed out by the research carried out in this period?

2 Methodology

For the elaboration of this paper, a research was carried out on the person with intellectual disability and the labor market, between the years 2008-2018. The search on the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel/Ministry of Education [CAPES/MEC] Journal Database was conducted by subject through the Web of Science-Scopus databases, in order to obtain an efficient research. We filtered the search for English, Portuguese and Spanish languages, for topics in the areas of intellectual disability, inclusion, psychology, special education and the use of “papers/articles” as the resource type.

We selected the texts that focused on the adult with intellectual disability and texts articulated with other subjects, such as legislation of vacancy reservation, provided that these subjects were part of the objectives of the bibliographic research. After the first selection of texts, we separated the papers that addressed the issue about the insertion of the person with ID in the labor market. We obtained a total of 29 papers of interest, as shown in Table 2 below.

Table 2
Survey of papers on people with intellectual disabilities and the labor market - CAPES/Ministry of Education Database (2008-2018).

Search	Terms	Number of papers	Selected	Author / Year	Title
By subject	Adult AND Intellectual Disability	22	1	1) Rosa & Denari (2013)	1) Trabalho, educação e família: perspectivas para a pessoa com DI - Work, education and family: perspectives for the person with ID
By subject	Intellectual Disability AND labor insertion	15	1	1)Angonese, Boueri, & Schmidt (2015)	1) O adulto com deficiência intelectual: concepção de deficiência e trajetória de carreira - Adults with intellectual disability: conception of disability and career trajectory
By subject	Intellectual Disability AND labor market insertion	90	1	1)Galán, Martin, Ruiz, & Arregui (2014)	1) La transición a la vida activa de las personas con discapacidad: expectativas familiares y grado de ajuste al trabajo - Transition to active life of people with disabilities: family expectations and degree of work adjustment
By subject	Intellectual Disability AND labor insertion	303	6	1) Redig & Glat (2017)	1) Programa educacional especializado para capacitação e inclusão no trabalho de pessoas com DI - Inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in laboral activities: a work customization program
				2) Furtado & Silva (2014)	2) Trabalho e pessoas com DI: análise da produção científica - Work and persons with intellectual disability: an analysis of scientific production
				3) Silva & Furtado (2012)	3) Inclusão no trabalho: a vivência de pessoas com DI - Inclusion in work: the experience of persons with intellectual disabilites
				4) Costa, Cornello, Tette, Rezende, & Nepomuceno (2011)	4) Inclusão social pelo trabalho: a qualificação profissional para pessoas com deficiência intelectual Social inclusion through work: professional qualification for people with intellectual disability
				5) Trentin & Raitz (2018)	5) Educação e trabalho: formação profissional para jovens com deficiência intelectual na escola especial - Education and work: professional training for young people with intellectual disability in special school
				6) Gasset, Galvez, & Martin (2013)	6) Diez anos de formacion para el empleo de personas com discapacidad intelectual em la universidad: balance y perspectivas Ten years of training for the employment of people with intellectual disabilities in the university: assessment and perspectives
By subject	Intellectual Disability AND work	338	2	1) Mourão, Sampaio, & Duarte (2012)	1) Colocação seletiva de pessoas com DI nas organizações: um estudo qualitativo - Selective placement of mentally challenged people in organizations: a qualitative analysis
				2) Silva, Furtado, & Andrade (2018	2) A inclusão no trabalho sob a perspectiva das pessoas com DI - Workplace Inclusion from the Standpoint of Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities
By subject	Mental disability AND work	2363	11	1)Ellenkamp, Brouwera, Embregts Joosen, & van Weeghel (2016)	1) Work environment-related factors in obtaining and maintaining work in a competitive employment setting for employers with intellectual disabilities a systematic review
				2)Akkerman, Kef, & Meininger (2018)	2) Job satisfaction of people with intellectual disability: Associations with job characteristics and personality
				3) Barros (2015)	3) As meninas de Helena: deficiência, inclusão e mercado de trabalho em São Luís The Helena Girls: intellectual disability, Inclusion and the Labor Market in São Luís
				4) Bussman, França, & Jacinto (2014)	4) Reserva de vagas e seus efeitos no mercado de trabalho: o caso das pessoas com deficiência no Brasil - Reservation of vacancies and their effects on the labor market: the case of people with disabilities in Brazil
				5)Fasching (2014)	5) Vocational education and training and transitions into the labour Market of persons with intellectual disabilities
				6) Garcia & Maia (2014)	6) Características da participação das pessoas com deficiência e/ou limitação funcional no mercado de trabalho brasileiro - Characteristics of participation of people with disabilities and/or functional limitations in the Brazilian labor market
				7)Garcia (2014)	7) Panorama da inclusão das pessoas com deficiência no mercado de trabalho no Brasil - Overview of the inclusion of people with disabilities in the labor market in Brazil
				8) McConkey & Collins (2010)	8) The role of support staff in promoting the social inclusion of persons with an intellectual disability
				9) Moore, McDonald, & Barlett (2018)	9) Emerging trends affecting future employment opportunities for people with intellectual disability: The case of a large retail organization
				10) Narayan, Pratapkumar, & Reddy (2017)	10) Community managed services for persons with intellectual disability: Andhra Pradesh experience
				11) Ribeiro & Carneiro (2009)	11) A inclusão indesejada: as empresas brasileiras face à lei de cotas para pessoas com deficiência no mercado de trabalho - The undesirable inclusion: the Brazilian firms and the law of quotas to be reserved to the disable people in the labour market
Scopus Database	Intellectual Disability AND work	8	2	1) Morais (2017)	1)O mercado de trabalho e a pessoa com deficiência intelectual: entraves e oportunidades - The labour market and the person with intellectual disabilities: barriers and opportunities
				2) Bezerra & Vieira (2012)	2)Pessoa com deficiência intelectual: a nova "ralé" das organizações do trabalho - People with intellectual handicaps: the new "working-class" brats of labor organizations
Scopus Database	Mental disability AND work	740	3	1) Lohuis, Vwuren, Scools, & Bohlmeijer	1) Ambiguities of "doing what works": how professionals make sense of applying solution-focused support for people with intellectual disabilities
				2) Butcher & Wilton (2008)	2) Stuck in transition? Exploring the spaces of employment training for youth with intellectual disability
				3) Ferrari, Nota, & Soresi (2008)	3) Conceptions of work in Italian adults with intellectual disability
Web of Science Database	Intellectual disability AND work	4	1	1) Letelier & Illanes (2017)	1) Job training for Young people with intellectual disabilities included in a university campus
Web of Science Database	Intellectual Disability AND work	6	1	1) Mascaro (2016)	1) Inclusão e profissionalização do aluno com deficiência intelectual - Inclusion and professionalization of students with intellectual disabilities

Source: Elaborated by the authors.

In all the searches we made in the databases related to the people with ID and their inclusion in the labor market, we organized the material in co-related subjects, as follows: 1) Studies on the person with ID in organizations, which address all situations related to this subject in the organizational context. We understand organizations as a group of people with specific functions that combine individual and team efforts for the purpose of achieving collective purposes in companies, associations, government agencies, public and private entities, etc. 2) Professional training of the person with intellectual disability, which will address questions about the professional training of these subjects, successful experiences in countries that adopt this training, as well as the benefits etc. 3) Legislation and public policies, which address issues related to laws and benefits that support these workers. 4) Sense and meaning of the work, which deal with the conceptions that both people with ID as well as the other subjects involved in the context of the work environment, have about work. Finally, 5) Work, education and family, which emphasizes the importance of family and education in this labor inclusion process.

3 People with intellectual disabilities and insertion into the labor market

This section was organized based on the results obtained in the survey of the papers and aims to facilitate the understanding of the data. For our discussion, we separated the papers by related areas, as described in the previous paragraph.

3.1 Studies about the person with ID in the organizations

Studies related to people with intellectual disabilities in organizations and labor inclusion processes have shown that there is an interest on the part of organizations in gaining more knowledge about this public, who until then had lived on the fringes of society and today has found this understanding to be a citizen who is part of a society with rights and duties.

We found seven studies directly related to the organizations, namely: Mourão, Sampaio and Duarte (2012), focused on the discussion of the selective allocation of people with intellectual disabilities in organizations; Bezerra and Vieira (2012), which address the issue of inequality of opportunity for people with intellectual disabilities in companies; Lohuis, Vwuren, Scools and Bohlmeier (2016), who made a qualitative study with the objective of understanding how professionals deal with Solution-Focused Support for people with ID; Ellenkamp, ​​Brouwers, Embregts, Joosen and van Weeghel (2016), who reviewed papers published in the last 20 years in order to answer which factors were related to the work environment in competitive jobs for people with ID. The authors concluded that it is important to support employers, paying particular attention to: employer decisions, work content, work integration and culture, and job coaching.

It was also important Morais’s (2017) contribution. The author carried out an analysis of master’s and doctoral research on the people with ID and their inclusion in the work, besides the barriers and opportunities found in this process. The conclusion was that the insertion and permanence of this group in the market are unsatisfactory. Professional qualification is important, but it does not imply a job position and that low level of education is an obstacle to the inclusion of these individuals in the labor market.

Akkerman and Meininger (2018) conducted a study to investigate the associations of job satisfaction with characteristics, demands and resources of work and personality, in which it was noticed that, for people with ID with high conscientiousness, the highest demands of employment were associated to the reduction of job satisfaction, which was not the case for those with low conscientiousness. Finally, Moore, McDonald and Barlett (2018) conducted a case study to explore how supervisors and co-workers of an Australian retail organization incorporate inclusive recruitment practices to facilitate employment opportunities for people with ID. The authors concluded that the employability of people with ID is influenced by technological changes in work environments and that is a growing focus on efficiency.

3.2 Studies on the professional training of people with ID

We found 13 papers on relevant inclusion programs in their respective contexts. Among them, we mention Butcher and Wilton’s (2008) work, who studied the experiences of young people with ID in the High School transition in search of paid employment. The authors came to the conclusion that while the goal of young people and their parents was to make a transition to competitive paid work, the lack of transition planning, lack of appropriate opportunities and other factors meant that young people spent considerable time in transition spaces such as vocational training, sheltered workshops and supported employment placements. Young people can participate in these spaces with the critical role of social interaction and meaningful activity outside their home.

We also cite McConkey and Collins’s (2010) study on the role of personal support in promoting the social inclusion of people with ID in a context of living schemes, shared residential and group homes with people with ID in the United Kingdom. In this study, the authors concluded that employees working in a more individualized way with support arrangements, new forms of work and new models of individual services tend to promote the social inclusion of these subjects.

Costa, Comello, Tette, Rezende and Nepomuceno (2011) investigated how the professional qualification of people with ID in the Associations of Parents and Friends of the Exceptional (APAE - Associações de Pais e Amigos dos Excepcionais) of five cities of the region of the Campo das Vertentes in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The authors concluded through the results that the professional qualification process is configured in a web of tensions, different visions and expectations on the part of each actor involved, whether for political reasons, Continuous Welfare Benefit (BPC - Benefício de Prestação Continuada) or either by a selection process to compose workshops etc. The study conducted by Gasset, Galvez and Martin (2013) dealt with the experience developed in the Promentor Program, a pioneer in Spanish universities, a program that aims to train and include people with ID in the labor market.

Galán, Martín, Ruiz and Arregui’s (2014) text deals with the transition of the active life of people with disabilities: family expectations and adjustment to work, the result of applying a labor insertion itinerary, within the framework of an European project, which was attended by students from three schools in Finland, Spain and Denmark, as well as their families. The authors concluded that the professional qualification programs are a facilitating tool for the social and labor inclusion of young people with disabilities, not only to obtain minimum skills for employment, but also as a space for coexistence and relations with students, teachers and other professionals involved, in order to develop links of great value.

According to Fasching (2014), in Australia, policy measures to include people with ID in the labor market have been successful in obtaining employment, but it is perceived that people with ID have difficulties in accessing these education and professional qualification measures. The results suggest that schooling facilitates the accessibility and success of education and professional qualification measures for men and women with ID.

Furtado and Silva (2014) carried out a study with the objective of analyzing abstracts of scientific publications in the area of labor ​​inclusion and people with ID. They had results indicating that the subjects investigated in this area were: “General aspects of inclusion” and “Work Skills”. Another research to be mentioned is the one conducted by Angonese, Boueri and Schmidt (2015), whose objective was to describe the relationship between the school trajectory, career and the concept on disability of workers with ID in the labor market. The authors concluded that there is a need for professional and career guidance for this population, with a view of contributing to effective labor inclusion.

Mascaro (2016) also made a research on professional education for students with ID and aimed to analyze a professional training course for those students in a special school, in which the importance of differentiated proposals in professional training, the investment of the teacher in a differentiated training and the initiative of the school in the search for partnerships to implement changes in daily life was examined. The results pointed favorably to the teacher’s continued training in order to teach in a new context and to the school’s initiative in the search for partnerships in order to enable changes.

In the work conducted by Letelier and Aguilar (2017), a summary was elaborated with the results of doctoral thesis, with the objective to evaluate integrally a program of inclusive socio-labor formation in Chile, its implementation, resources, methodologies, impact and labor performance of the graduates, claiming as hypotheses that the program fulfills its educational objectives, achieving the labor and social insertion of the graduates. Narayan, Pratapkumar and Reddy (2017), in the small state of Andhra Pradesh, India, argue that, despite limited resources, the community itself mobilized in a community-based model of labor development and coordination of services for people with ID. Village women with disabilities were identified and those willing to be trained to work as community resource agents were selected and received training in a phased manner. It is pertinent to emphasize that the women’s volunteering to undergo training was due to experiencing, personally, the social exclusion they suffered as children due to their disability.

As part of the Brazilian literature, Redig and Glat (2017) deal with the customization of work that allowed a good performance and professional production of the trainees, contributing to their social inclusion in the work environment, reducing the barriers to attitudes and prejudices. We consider it relevant to cite the study performed by Trentin and Raitz (2018), whose objective was to analyze the contributions of professional training offered by a special school, located in Santa Catarina, in order to include young people with ID in the job market. In this study, the authors concluded that, although professional workshops are a space of welcome and respect, they do not offer the possibility of effective integration through work qualification processes.

3.3 Studies on legislation and public policies

On the studies carried out involving legislation and public policies related to people with ID and the world of work, we found five important studies. Ribeiro and Carneiro (2009), who highlight several defensive strategies that companies use before the Quota Law, one of them being the claim that they do not find skilled or qualified persons in the labor market, that the Quotas law is exclusive, because employers prefer to select among the people with disabilities those that are most convenient to them, those with less severe disabilities. The research was carried out together with one of the Labor Ministry’s Regional Labor Office, at the 3rd Region of Belo Horizonte - BH.

Barros (2015) carried out a study that analyzed the access and permanence of women with ID, graduated from the Helena Antipoff Special Education Center, in the labor market in São Luís - Maranhão, Brazil. The research revealed that the companies that hire people with ID do so because of the compulsion imposed by law and due to the supervision carried out by the Labor Ministry, justifying the difficulty of contracting due to the lack of education, professional qualification and the inadequacy of companies to receive them. The quota law is an opening of possibilities for people with ID in order to have access to the labor market as a recognition of their potential, which favors their employment in different categories.

In the study conducted by Garcia and Maia (2014), the insertion of people with disabilities is analyzed, according to data from the 2010 Demographic Census. To the authors, people with disabilities are associated with shorter working hours, more precarious conditions (without work registration or self-employment), more participation in agricultural work and domestic services. The subjects with disabilities receive wages 33% less, being 1/3 of that difference related to the heterogeneity of occupation insertion and socioeconomic level. Regarding the severity of the disability, the discrimination is greater for individuals who are in a more severe condition.

After analysis, Bussmann, França and Jacinto (2014) concluded that Brazilian legislation could have an effect in order to improve the opportunities of the labor market for people with disabilities. In contrast, Garcia (2014) questions the reason why, although Brazilian legislation is considered one of the most advanced in the world on disability, the participation of people with disabilities is extremely low in the labor market. The author highlighted the following aspects: precarious accessibility, persistence of stereotypes and prejudices, school and professional training passivity, inadequacy and insufficiency of legislation (quota law is insufficient for the demand of people with disabilities), cultural issues related to disability (family overprotection).

3.4 Studies on sense and meaning of work

We found three papers related to the sense and meaning of work, in which the authors’ consensus is that the work environment favors the development of people with ID. Ferrari, Nota and Soresi (2008) carried out a study with the objective of analyzing the concept of work in individuals with mild or moderate ID, working in competitive or sheltered work environments and comparing the working notions of mental retardation with non-disabled and young adolescents. Forty-eight subjects with mental retardation, 48 non-disabled adults of the same chronological age and 48 non-disabled adolescents of the same mental age as those with mental retardation participated in the study. There was no difference for those with mental retardation working in competitive or sheltered work contexts, but they were inversely observed among participants with mental retardation, even adults of chronological age and adolescents of the same mental age.

We found an experience report performed by Silva and Furtado (2012), derived from the practice of a professional internship in Psychology with the participation of four apprentices with ID and occupational experience in commerce, with the purpose of describing the experiences of these participants in the process of inclusion in the work. The data revealed that the failure to include these young people/adults was due both to the lack of professional preparation, personal and social-emotional issues, as well as to the difficulty of companies to receive people with disabilities. Finally, the study conducted by Silva, Furtado and Andrade (2018) aimed to investigate aspects related to the inclusion in the work of people with ID from reports of experiences of nine participants with ID. The data pointed out that the environment context of work can favor the development of autonomy, independence, personal satisfaction, productivity and responsibility for these people.

3.5 Study on work, education and family

We found a relevant research on work, education and family, performed by Rosa and Denari (2013). It is a case study conducted with the family of an adult with ID of 23 years of age. The authors observed that there is an unreported or declared exclusion in the labor insertion, that the young person presents family dependence and lack of autonomy.

4 Discussion of results

We will present, next, the reflections discussed in these researches, in order to emphasize the theoretical collaboration of the historical and cultural perspective. The studies indicate that the receptivity of people with ID in the labor market by organizations has advanced, mainly due to the requirement of compliance with the current laws that ensure the permanence of these subjects in this space of social inclusion. However, there are barriers encountered in hiring, such as the difficulty of diagnosis, which is sometimes confused with mental illness; the degree of schooling required (Lancillotti, 2003; Cezar, 2009); lack of the figure of support at work and preference in hiring those with disabilities that, mostly, are not stigmatized as slow, difficult to deal with, among other issues, due to lack of knowledge on the part of the organizations. Companies tend to discriminate against people with more severe disabilities, such as the blind, the deaf, the mentally ill and the wheelchair users (Ribeiro & Carneiro, 2009). Disinformation and stigma associated with intellectual disability are barriers to entry into the labor market (Cordeiro & Oliveira, 2011). These authors state that there is still a stereotype that these subjects are unable to work, are slow and need personal care of other people.

Regarding the professional training of the person with ID, studies demonstrate the need for professional services to focus on the development of social skills, providing psychological and emotional support to learners (Silva & Furtado, 2012). We realize that successful experiences around the world, in this process of labor inclusion, invest in the figure of support, which functions as an aid, in order to favor the maturation of responsibility, work habits, socialization and autonomy for these young people. We understand that the figure of support as a reference for people with ID in the labor market is relevant.

The studies point to the importance of the legislation in effect in this process of strengthening the inclusion of the people with ID in the labor market. Although Brazil is considered the country with the highest number of laws that guarantee the rights of people with disabilities, we still have some obstacles to be reviewed, such as: delay in regulation, supervision without the necessary structure and, especially, the low public and private investment in professional qualification. The adaptations of work activities translate into numbers that are incompatible with the market demand (Simonelli & Caramotto, 2010).

Matos’s (2017) analysis deals with the subjective dimension of the dialectic process of inclusion/exclusion in the work with and without the support of people with ID, along with relevant questions such as: What is the purpose of having a policy if the person does not feel safe enough to give up the benefit?; If even supportive employment is close to becoming a law, how could these subjects run the risk of being only supported by the “selective allocation” methodology?

Given the literature found, we made a reflection about the contracting of people with ID to be due to the legal requirement or because there is in fact a commitment on the part of society to actually include these subjects in the labor market because of their competence and potential. We suggest that the number of work tax auditors be recomposed so that there is effective inspection and pertinent actions.

Studies indicate the need for the school, family and whole society to work on issues such as autonomy and independence of these young people with ID, since in most cases they are treated in an infantilized way, pruning them to live in a democratic way with other people (Padilha, 2001; Carvalho, 2004; Maffezol & Góes, 2004; Fonseca, 2007).

Labor inclusion is a fact in the present day and has contributed to the fact that people with ID conquer, through their work, not only their livelihood but also a social function in the world of work. The meaning of work is characterized as subjective and social cognition that varies individually, insofar as it derives from the process of assigning meanings and, at the same time, presents socially shared aspects, associated with the historical conditions of society (Borges & Tamayo, 2001).

The work has striking effects on the lives of people with ID, giving them the opportunity to develop diverse activities, skills, potentialities and talents, as well as providing means for them to become independent and create links in other contexts. The studies point out that people with ID can increase their social networks, establishing social and professional relationships with people without disabilities (Note, Santilli, Genevra, & Soresi, 2014; Lysaght, Cobigo, & Hamilton, 2012; Vornholt, Uitdewilligen, & Nijhuis, 2013).

Data indicated that the work environment context can favor the development of autonomy, independence, personal satisfaction, productivity and responsibility for these people (Silva et al., 2018).

In view of the bibliographical survey that we carried out, it is well-known that the construction of meanings by the people with ID on the labor market is still little explored by the researchers, representing, in our opinion, an important gap to be filled. We understand that it is extremely important to investigate the construction of meanings as a form of human action, about the work environment context, because it is a space of cultural relations that build conditions for human development and are directly influenced by these conditions (Mieto et al. 2016).

5 Final considerations

All the studies presented here reveal the researchers’ interest in advancing new investigative processes about people with ID in the labor market. The contributions are relevant and indicate points to be investigated, mainly the construction of meanings by the people with ID on the labor market.

We observed that there are few studies with the effective participation of these subjects on issues that directly involve them, emphasizing the perception about oneself and the work environment context. It is important that studies are valued from the perspective of the individual with ID, which has been strengthened with the motto “nothing about us, without us”, from the beginning of the international movement for the rights of people with disabilities.

Based on the bibliographical survey carried out, in accordance with the national public policy documents and international guidelines, we suggest that future studies deepen the discussions presented here and consider, as participants in their research, the person with ID, no longer in a passive positioning, to be observed. It is urgent that we can bet, in the field of research on people with intellectual disabilities, in methods that respect a perspective of accountability on the part of these people (Mieto et al., 2016; Souza, 2019), with the purpose of trying to eliminate the barriers and significantly increase their inclusion in the labor market, not only to increase their quantitative but, most importantly, their qualitative representativeness.

• 5
  We draw the concept of intellectual disability proposed by the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR, 2006), which defines the person with intellectual disability as someone with “significant limitations in bothintellectual functioningand inadaptive behavior, which covers many everyday social and practical skills. This disability originatesbefore the age of 18”. The adaptive behavior is expressed in adaptive, conceptual, social and practical skills, such as communication, self-care, family life, social skills, community use, autonomy, health and safety, academic functionality, leisure and work (AAMR, 2006).
• 6
  Secretariat of Public Policies of Employment of the Ministry of Labor and Employment - Annual Report on Social Information.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  12 Sept 2019
• Date of issue
  Jul-Sep 2019

History

• Received
  06 May 2019
• Reviewed
  04 June 2019
• Accepted
  11 June 2019