Vocational Participation of intellectually disabled people

In recent years, research on aspects of the post-educational life of people with an intellectual disability has become increasingly prominent within the scientific discourse of Special Needs and Inclusive Education and related disciplines. Bringing an end to the marginalisation of the topic this development was favoured, amongst other things, by a change of perspective towards self-determination and social inclusion, which is beginning to manifest itself both in the field of research and in pedagogical practice. However, so far little attention has been given to the specific meaning of experiences of participation of people with an intellectual disability, especially in the sphere of working life. The research project at hand aims at reconstructing both objectively determinable and subjectively experienced participation in the vocational biography of people with an intellectual disability. In order to achieve this goal, the transition period from "school to work" and the "working life" phase of people with an intellectual disability shall be studied with particular regard to the specific institutional situation in Austria. The study will address the questions (i) whether and how people with an intellectual disability experience participation during the phases transition from school to work and working life and (ii) whether or not there is a connection between experiences of participation and the perception of an individual and self-determined life design. Focussing on these points allows to derive conclusions on the future design of support offers for participation in working life of people with an intellectual disability which are oriented on the principles of self-determination and participation.

For decades in Austria, children with intellectual disabilities have been placed in special schools. Since the middle of the 1990s an increasing number of students have been able to participate in mainstream classrooms. But these changes have not been matched by post-school opportunities for inclusion. People with intellectual disabilities mostly find themselves in segregated forms of employment a few years after having finished school. Interviews conducted in a longitudinal study with two groups, young people in the transition phase from school to working life, and adults who, for the most-part entered sheltered workshops, revealed individual experiences of exclusion in many important areas of life.The analysis of qualitative data was combined with a participatory approach. Therefore, a reference group of persons with disabilities was involved in the interpretations of interview data and complemented the view of the professional researchers in the project from the perspective of representatives of the target group. By observing and analysing this working process of the reference group, the project has developed additional methodological knowledge on strategies of participatory research. The biographical interviews with the young people in the transition phase from school to the labour market showed that regular work and leisure opportunities are highly important for the development of their roles in adulthood. The longitudinal study, using biographical interviews with adults with disabilities, revealed the importance of work in the development of identity. The biographical experiences of having largely been excluded from mainstream employment produced different ways of organising ones own identity. They are largely influenced by various enabling or disabling spatial qualities and experiences in the life-course stages of childhood, youth and adulthood and in the various interdependently linked areas of life. These experiences, however, have a direct effect on their opportunities to actively position themselves and to try and attain the central markers of an adult identity (home, family & relationships, participation and consumption), with employment at its centre. A survey with supervisory school administrators and parents of school leavers with intellectual disabilities from all over Austria showed, that the rate of segregated vocational pathways was even higher for those who had their school careers in special schools, than for those who were educated in inclusive settings. An analysis of all available measures to facilitate the transition from school to the labour market revealed that, in its current form, the success of supporting people with intellectual disabilities in finding sustainable employment is limited. The countrywide collection of quantitative data demonstrated that, contrary to the societal goal of participation, the system of sheltered workshops has grown over recent years, yet working in regular jobs is still a very rare exception.