How Organizations Normalize the Construction of Tasks for Workers with Disabilities

• In Event: Disability in Society Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 4. Education and Work

Abstract

In the United States, workers with disabilities are often tracked into lower-skill and low-paying jobs. These persistent occupational segregation processes may be indicative of countless organizational practices that are carried out inequitably, underscoring the need to examine structural and organizational contexts together. Through theory synthesis and adaptation, I argue that organizations operate under the assumption that they have a normalized, disciplined workforce. With this in mind, I interrogate how concepts such as ‘ability’ or ‘abled standards’ are embedded into daily organizational making decision processes, and how these processes consequently manifest themselves in the way organizations construct and assign normalized tasks to workers with disabilities.

Author

• Andhrea Tagle Readi, Rutgers University