Toward ‘mental accessibility’: changing the mental obstacles that future Human Resource Management practitioners have about the employment of people with disabilities

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a participatory research project undertaken with Hungarian MSc students specializing in Human Resource Management and Development about the employment of people with disabilities. The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is very high in Hungary and HR practitioners have a key role in maintaining or reducing barriers to their employment. Following the tradition of critical pedagogy, the aim of the research project was twofold. Firstly, we aimed to reveal the mental patterns, attitudes and beliefs of future HR practitioners to the employment of people with disabilities (which might be root causes of domination, discrimination or exploitation). Secondly, through using a radical methodological approach – cooperative inquiry – the researchers wished to emancipate students and challenge their frozen beliefs about disability as well as the positivist value system which usually dominates business education. The main result of the research project was to challenge the medical approach to disability which formerly dominated the belief systems of our student co-researchers, thereby engendering a more critical worldview.

Keywords:

• employment of people with disabilities
• co-operative inquiry
• participatory disability research
• critical Human Resource Development
• critical pedagogy
• Hungary

Acknowledgement

The development of the article has been supported by TÁMOP-4.2.2/B-10/1-2010-0023 research program.