Prospects for Employment of Persons with Disabilities in the Post-COVID-19 Era

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly changed the work landscape for employees with disabilities, leading to remote work, work-from-home, greater flexibility, and increased use of digital technology, which resulted in substantial benefits for some workers with disabilities after the pandemic. However, the shift to digital and flexible work exposed deep-seated inequalities and social exclusion. The pandemic widened the “digital divide,” with many people with disabilities experiencing less accessibility to the necessary devices, connectivity, and digital skills compared to their nondisabled counterparts. In addition, workers with disabilities were often concentrated in industries and occupations (e.g., cleaning services, food preparation) that were not conducive to remote work, limiting their ability to benefit from increased flexibility. This new book primarily compares the employment situation for people with disabilities in the United Kingdom and United States during and post-pandemic, but it also analyzes the conditions in Low-Middle-Income-Countries (LMICs). The book ends with a forecasting of the future job market in the United Kingdom and United States and the potential implication of AI in employment for people with disabilities. AI could pose opportunities for future employment for people with disabilities, but there may also be gaps in the technology related to economic crises, as well as a serious ethical concerns, employers’ prejudice and negative attitudes, and the availability of digital infrastructure and devices, particularly in LMICs.