International Employment Policy Think Tank Conference Held in Houston
By Lex Frieden, Laurie Gerken Redd, and Laurel Richards
Twenty-three international disability researchers and policy specialists from eight countries met in Houston on July 26 and 27, 2001, to examine issues affecting the rates of employment of people with disabilities worldwide.
Think Tank planners Lex Frieden of The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research and Fred McFarlane of San Diego State University organized the meeting around five subject areas:
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Past and Current International Research Efforts: examining factors that foster or discourage employment by people with disabilities, determining the employment rate of people with disabilities, and assessing methods by which such rate is measured.
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Identifying and Comparing New Approaches to Employment: discussing what practitioners know from day-to-day experiences which researchers don't know, considering how researchers can generate more meaningful hypotheses, and assessing the extent to which issues related to regional differences as well as issues related to developing countries are appropriately recognized.
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Gathering and Disseminating Knowledge: delineating ways researchers can be more effective in accumulating, sharing, comparing, and using knowledge; identifying ways in which practitioners and policy makers can make best use of research-generated information.
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Affecting Employment Policy on National and International Levels: considering approaches researchers and practitioners can take to affect policy proactively, discussing the notion that the realms of national and international policy subject only to advice of well-organized, vested-interest groups.
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Measuring the Impact of Policy Change and Paradigm Shift: examining whether or not it is possible to obtain accurate measures of social change within a complex environment, assessing whether or not current definitions of disability adequately support rehabilitation research and practice.
With these subjects providing a framework, Think Tank participants identified and discussed variables pertaining to employment rates of people with disabilities which they have individually studied to date, theorized about variables which have yet to be studied, and commented on the results of past research. The meeting concluded with participants identifying a collaborative process for developing an international, multi cultural research methodology designed to determine the dynamic factors which prevent people with disabilities who want to work from doing so.
Think Tank participants left the meeting committed to continuing work on refining research topics identified during the meeting and to select those topics on which they will collaborate during the next several months. In an upcoming issue of DisabilityWorld, we will report on these topics and subsequent actions planned by the group.
This conference is sponsored by the Presidential Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities/U.S. Dep. of Labor, IDEAS 2000 Project/National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.S. Dept. of Education, the Interwork Institute at San Diego State University, the Commission on Work and Employment of Rehabilitation International, the World Institute on Disability, and the ILRU Program of TIRR.
International Employment Policy Think Tank Conference Participants
Australia:
Graham Hughes of the Centre of National Research on Disability and Rehabilitation Medicine
Canada:
Wolfgang Zimmermann of the National Institute of Disability Management and Research
Hong Kong:
Joseph Kwok of the City University of Hong Kong
Ireland:
Gene Lambert of the Rehab Group, R&I Department
Republic of South Africa:
Daan de la Rey of the National Council for Persons with Physical Disabilities in South Africa, African Region Chair of Rehabilitation International Commission on Work & Employment
Sweden:
Stig Larsson of the Disability and Rehabilitation Research Centre at Malmo University Hospital
United Kingdom:
Ray Fletcher of Remploy Ltd. in the United Kingdom, European Region Chair of Rehabilitation International Commission on Work & Employment
United States:
Monroe Berkowitz of the Bureau of Economic Research at Rutgers University
Susanne Bruyere of the ILR Program on Employment and Disability at Cornell University
Susan Daniels, public policy expert in the U.S.
Donald Dew of the Rehabilitation Education Programs at The George Washington University, North American Region Chair of Rehabilitation International
Donald Galvin of The Galvin Group, LLC
Madan Kundu of Rehabilitation Counseling Department of Southern University
Linda Kontnier of the Presidential Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities, U.S. Dept. of Labor
Sue Suter of Suter and Company
Conference Hosts:
Houston:
Lex Frieden of The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research and director of ILRU Program, President of Rehabilitation International
Laurie Gerken Redd of IDEAS 2000 and the ILRU Program
Carri George of IDEAS 2000 and the ILRU Program
Aaron McCullough of IDEAS 2000 and the ILRU Program
San Diego:
Fred R. McFarlane of the Department of Administration, Rehabilitation & Postsecondary Education at San Diego State University Chair of the Rehabilitation International Commission on Work and Employment
Kehaulani Galeai of the Interwork Institute at San Diego State University
Berkeley:
Kathy Martinez of IDEAS 2000 and director of the International Division of the World Institute on Disability
Barbara Duncan of IDEAS 2000 and English language editor of Disability World, Principal investigator with Rehabilitation International.
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