In recent years, many national and international laws and policies have been adopted to promote employment opportunities for people with disabilities, including through national antidiscrimination legislation, human rights treaties such as the United Nations Convention on the Right of Persons with Disabilities, and the work of groups such as the International Labour Organization. Furthermore, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has explicitly acknowledged the importance of employing people with disabilities to many countries. Despite these advances in rhetoric and recognition, the employment of people with disabilities continues to lag behind employment of people without disabilities. It is clear that antidiscrimination legislation alone is not enough; policies and programs that complement antidiscrimination are needed to have a real impact on the employment of people with disabilities.

Disability and Equity at Work is a project that moves the discussion of the employment of people with disabilities to a more practical level. The chapters are the result of a conference that brought together fellows who visited and researched international programs/organisations with internationally recognised leaders in employment issues facing people with disabilities to discuss what works for people with disabilities. While theory and normative discussions of what employment for people with disabilities should look like are present in most of the chapters, focus is placed more squarely on describing initiatives in various contexts to inform employers, policy-makers, advocates and other stakeholders about how they can use some of these ideas in their own settings.

Disability and Equity at Work is a strong reminder that issues of social policy do not exist in a vacuum. That is, it is difficult to improve the employment outcomes of people with disabilities without simultaneous attention to other policy domains. Issues such as education, healthcare and social security or income programs are obvious policy areas that need to be addressed, particularly because many of them contribute to the low or under-employment of people with disabilities. However, issues of transportation, accessibility of buildings and housing, assistive technology, and other welfare programs (i.e. food) are also intertwined with employment, and the chapters in this book make those linkages clearly. Without improving access to all of these domains, employment outcomes for people with disabilities are likely to remain below those for people without disabilities, who may not face similar disparities in access to these other policy domains.

This collection spans an impressive amount of territory. The chapters focus on the particular issues of low-, middle- and high-income countries. Chapters are dedicated to various aspects of employment policy, including assistive technology, micro-finance, non-discrimination measures, training programs and the intersection with income programs/policies. Many of the chapters also take a life course approach to employment, focusing on the challenge of transitioning from education to employment, career advancement and promotions and issues related to changing jobs and reintegration when employed. Finally, the authors of the chapters themselves represent a diverse collection of scholars; this collection of essays blends researchers at all levels, from graduate students to internationally known researchers. Despite this enormous undertaking, the book succeeds in balancing these perspectives by providing in-depth analysis and contextualisation of why certain initiatives work or fail in varying locations. Thus, while some stakeholders may choose to read only a single chapter, for the most part the collection functions best as a whole; it is unlikely that any single one of the policies/programs discussed in a chapter can be fully replicated in another setting, but it is more likely that stakeholders can learn and adapt incrementally from the content of multiple chapters, in a piecemeal fashion.

The book clearly outlines the importance of employment to people with disabilities themselves and to national and local governments, but a complementary focus on the impact directly on employers is largely missing. Several chapters include a short commentary on this, although most are aimed at avoiding fines/levies for not meeting an employment quota (e.g. chapters on Japan or Serasa Experian in Brazil) or complying with antidiscrimination and accommodation policies (e.g. the Business Forum on Disability in the UK). Rather than focusing on avoiding potential ‘sticks’ for not employing people with disabilities, an explicit discussion of ‘carrots’ available to employers would be welcome. This could include evidence from businesses who have found people with disabilities to be extremely loyal and hardworking employees or examples of successful corporate social responsibility and/or diversity initiatives that appeal to potential customers and the public.

A constant refrain throughout many of the chapters is the dearth of quality statistical evidence on employment of people with disabilities, globally, nationally and especially locally. Differing definitions of disability – and even of what it means to be employed or unemployed – make comparisons across countries or within a country over time difficult if not impossible. These difficulties confound the authors when trying to obtain empirical evidence on the impact of a specific policy/program. Many of these chapters are based on anecdotal evidence or less than rigorous evaluations. This is not to say that mentioning any of these initiatives as a way forward for people with disabilities is unfounded, but simply to remember that each is highly context-specific, largely not systematically evaluated and results may vary from location to location. Most notably, the struggle for solid evidence serves to reinforce the demand for better global statistics on disability and the pressing need for rigorous evaluations of the impact of disability policy, especially related to employment, and whether/how programs or policies can be successfully transferred from one place to another.