Disabling discourses and charitable model of disability: labour market activation for people with disabilities, Ireland – a critical policy analysis

Abstract

This study is informed by critical disability studies particularly in the area of labour market activation for disabled people, aimed at capturing the complex intersection between welfare, education and employment policy. The Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities 2015–2024 represents a significant policy event in Irish disability policy-making. It was originally committed to some decades previously when the State’s first National Disability Strategy was published. The policy document presents key proposals for addressing the poor participation rates of people with disabilities in employment. Having finally ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities in 2018, the policy represents an important milestone in achieving disability equality and inclusion. Thus, cultural and political understanding of the way in which disability is constituted within the policy-making process is of central importance to this study. On this basis, this article explores the uses of language and the often-paradoxical discourses that saturate this policy, through the lens of critical disability studies, highlighting the tensions and limitations therein.

Keywords:

• critical discourse analysis
• disability policy
• human rights
• ableism
• disablism
• employment activation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.