ABSTRACT
Chronic illness and disability affects 17 per cent of Europe’s general population and about 15 per cent of the working age population. Disabled people also have twice the rate of non-participation in the European labour market as non-disabled people (European Foundation 2003). In the UK, one in five adults have a disability and only 31 per cent of disabled people, compared to 80 per cent of non-disabled people, are economically active (Roulstone and Warren 2006). Disabled women, moreover, find it more difficult to secure employment and earn less than disabled men and non-disabled women (Emmett and Alant 2006), which suggests they experience multiple discrimination. Of those disabled people able to secure employment there is evidence that they are more likely than nondisabled people to be employed in low status jobs, be underemployed and unable to achieve promotion (Russell 2002). Yet despite these obvious disadvantages, most disabled people would like to work and this ambition does not decline with age (Evans and Repper 2000).
