Adults with cystic fibrosis and barriers to employment

Abstract

Existing research on cystic fibrosis (CF) tends to view CF as a long‐term medical condition of childhood, thus reinforcing the mistaken view that few children with CF survive into adulthood. Despite the fact that people with CF are increasingly living into older age there has been little research into the employment of adults with CF. Those studies which have been undertaken portray CF as a ‘serious illness’ which causes employment problems. In contrast, this paper discusses findings from a study which explored the employment experiences of adults with CF from a social model perspective. The findings reveal barriers to employment which are similar to those experienced by other disabled people, as well as barriers related to the ‘impairment effects’ of CF. The authors conclude that adults with CF have valuable perspectives to contribute to social model analysis and the development of employment‐related policy solutions.

Keywords:

• cystic fibrosis
• adults
• employment
• discrimination
• impairment effects
• social model of disability