Employer attitudes toward hiring persons with disabilities : A vignette study in Sweden

• BACKGROUND: Individuals with disabilities are often far removed from the labour market and research shows that employers’ negative attitudes toward persons with disabilities create a barrier to attaining employment. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate Swedish employers’ experiences and attitudes toward hiring persons with various disabilities. METHODS: A vignette method with accompanying questions was used. A total of 212 employers, who were actively seeking to hire, were recruited via an online employment site and participated in the study. RESULTS: The results indicated that there is some interest for employers to hire persons with disabilities and that this depended on the type of disability a person has. Other results demonstrated that previous experience of employing persons with disabilities was linked to greater interest in hiring, that employers had greater interest to hire than they thought other employers had, and that openness about the disability was deemed as an important factor in the hiring process. CONCLUSION: The novelty of this study is its use of a vignette design to investigate employers’ attitudes in Sweden. Moreover, the results are much in line with international research. This contributes to knowledge and development of increasing employment for persons with disabilities. © 2015 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Employer attitudes

employment

persons with disabilities

Sweden

vignette method

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)