Reasons for psychological unpreparedness of persons with disabilities for work

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Reasons for psychological unpreparedness of persons with disabilities for work

Overchuk V.A., Vasyl' Stus Donetsk National University

The article focuses on the socio-psychological integration of people with disabilities, which remains an important issue for most countries. The author refers to a number of studies conducted in Ukraine and abroad, which show that, despite the efforts of states, there are still problems with the acceptance of persons with disabilities by society, and this primarily concerns the right to work. Discrimination and prejudice against people with disabilities by employers is based on the belief that typical abilities are higher. At its heart, ableism is rooted in the assumption that disabled people require `fixing' and defines people by their disability. It is a system that values people based on their bodies and minds and what society deems to be `normal', and devalues and limits the potential of disabled people. In such conditions, one of the areas of work in the field of social and psychological rehabilitation of people with disabilities and their employment is to encourage them to start their own business.

Key words: person with a disability, employment, motivation to work, psychological readiness.

Причини психологічної неготовності осіб з інвалідністю до трудової діяльності

Проблема психологічної готовності людини з обмеженими можливостями до відкриття власної справи залишається дуже актуальною на сьогоднішній день. Серед основних причин психологічної готовності до самозайнятості автор виділяє: відсутність попереднього досвіду, незахищеність, відсутність мотивації до самозайнятості серед людей з обмеженими можливостями, кінцевою метою яких є ефективне працевлаштування та економічне зростання. Ряд соціально-психологічних причин спричиняє соціальну напругу, бідність, незахищеність, матеріальну та моральну деградацію людей з інвалідністю та їх сімей.

Ключові слова: особа з інвалідністю, працевлаштування, мотивація до праці, психологічна готовність.

Formulation of the problem

The employment of people with disabilities remains an essential issue for most countries. To a large extent, the European orientation of modern Ukrainian politics draws additional attention to the needs of minorities and social groups that are in a non-competitive position. The government has taken some steps to improve legislation and state support. Still, the general political situation and the level of economic and social development of the country hinder the solution to this problem. The training programs for persons with disabilities and their further employment in specialized enterprises or enterprises with specially equipped jobs have shown their effectiveness, but, unfortunately, the scope of coverage of persons with disabilities in such programs remains insufficient.

Several studies [1; 2, p. 59-77] conducted in Ukraine and abroad show that despite the efforts of the state, there are still companies and organizations that are afraid to hire people with disabilities. They are fearful of reduced productivity, reduced quality of products or services, increased control by the state, additional costs, additional responsibilities. Also, many people are afraid to work with people who have psychological or mental problems, lag behind in development. This phenomenon is observed in different countries of the world [2]. Therefore, it is difficult to talk about the full competitiveness of people with disabilities when the labour market is not ready for it. In such conditions, one of the areas of work in the field of social rehabilitation of persons with disabilities and their employment is to stimulate selfemployment of such persons.

According to Ukrainian law, a self-employed person is a taxpayer who is a natural person-entrepreneur or carries out the independent professional activity, provided that such person is not an employee within such entrepreneurial or independent professional activity [3].

Entrepreneurship is an opportunity that allows a person with a disability to develop professionally and provide for their material needs. It also allows you to take a better position in society while having a flexible working day that meets the capabilities and conditions of this particular person, will enable you to work from home or specially equipped for their own needs office or workshop, and have, no less important, professional independence.

Analysis of recent research

General issues of social and psychological protection, labour relations, professional training of the population attract the attention of such scientists and practitioners as M. Avramenko, S. Bandur, D. Bohynia, O. Buhutskyi, I. Hnybidenko, M. Dolishnii, T. Zaiats, K. Korsak, M. Kostakov, E. Libanova, I. Maslova, V. Onikienko, V. Pokryshchuk, V. Savchenko, A. Shevtsov, L. Shepotko, L. Cherniuk and others.

Analysis of scientific publications shows that, despite the growing share of fascinating and essential works, the degree of study of the realization of their rights by people with disabilities in all spheres of life, the processes of their professional rehabilitation, socio-psychological adaptation can not be considered sufficient and needs further research, which determined the direction of our study.

Presenting main material

An important area of work to increase the employment of people with disabilities is to encourage such people to start their own business. In Ukraine, the state supports such initiatives. Thus, in Ukraine, an unemployed person who wants to start his own business can be provided with one-time assistance for organizing business activities [4]. The State Employment Service does not differentiate between people with disabilities but implements some measures aimed at supporting people who want to start their own business.

These measures include, but are not limited to:

1) informing the unemployed about the possibility of receiving financial assistance to start their own business;

2) provision of individual career guidance services;

3) involvement of the unemployed in counselling seminars;

4) help in developing a business plan;

5) assistance in the process of registration of documents and registration of own enterprise.

The number of people with disabilities who have received such assistance in the last three years is low.

At the same time, the problem of self-employment of people with disabilities needs in-depth analysis not only in terms of the number of people who received assistance in starting their own business but also in some other characteristics/indicators used in research by foreign scientists [5]:

1) perception of the existence of opportunities for persons with disabilities;

2) perception of their abilities;

3) fear of failure;

4) intentions to start their own business;

5) attitude to entrepreneurship;

6) the number of newly established enterprises (or the number of recently registered entrepreneurs);

7) the number of mature enterprises (number of entrepreneurs);

8) number of enterprises at the stage of origin/ business plan;

9) the number of enterprises/entrepreneurs that have ceased their activities.

Indeed, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that not all entrepreneurs continue their activities for an extended period. In January-October 2019, the number of entrepreneurs who ceased their activities was 3,160 and 1,131 more than the number of people who received unemployment benefits once (registered as entrepreneurs). Unfortunately, there is no data on persons with disabilities who have written the cessation of business activities.

There are several reasons why people with disabilities are in no hurry to start their own business. Some problems do not disappear when changing the form of employment of a person with a disability - whether this person works under a contract for another company, or independently develops their own business.

First of all, this applies to the stereotype of a passive person with a disability, which has long been established in society. For the most part, there is a plaintively passive attitude towards such a category of people as people who are physically and psychologically unprepared to work in the public sphere of production. It was facilitated, in particular, by the long-term silence from society about the accurate scale of disability issues and the implicit social isolation of most of these people. For the most part, these people were left alone with their problems and hardly crossed the threshold of their place of residence. All care was reduced to the provision of financial assistance and some of them - vocational education and jobs in state-owned enterprises and organizations.

Secondly, people with disabilities in terms of motivation to work are a very diverse group: some of them have this motivation is relatively high, some - no, some - no at all. There is no direct relationship between the level of motivation to work and the degree or nature of the disability. Some people with disabilities have a lack of motivation to work - and this is one of the main obstacles to their selfemployment.

And in this case, it is correct to speak not about low, namely about insufficiently high motivation, after all these people, in comparison with others need to overcome more obstacles, to make more efforts to establish own business and to work. Consequently, the motivation to work in them should be higher than in others.

We provide an indicative list of interrelated motives (meanings) of self-employment that may be important for a person with a disability:

1. Improvement of material condition;

2. Opportunity to feel their significance, communication with colleagues at work, a sense of belonging to the workforce;

3. The possibility of self-realization, enjoyment of work;

4. A sense of usefulness to other people;

5. Changing the social status of a person with a disability - obtaining grounds for social recognition, self-esteem;

6. Opportunity for career and material growth;

7. The possibility of establishing close relationships, starting a family;

8. Opportunity to diversify life, make it meaningful, full, etc.

In our opinion, in work on motivating people with disabilities to work, it is necessary to start the process of activating the existing motivation of a person in an irrelevant, “passive” state. It is a necessity to direct the flow of his thoughts in the right direction; it is necessary to create such conditions independently, decided on their significance for themselves. One of the main techniques that complement the identification of motives for self-employment is to discuss with a person with a disability the relevance of his current professional choice to life perspective. Suppose a young person realizes that his decision to start his own business is one of the components of his “life project”. In that case, it is more likely to hope for activity in finding opportunities for self-employment and successful implementation of plans.

Also, in our opinion, it is necessary to dwell on the case when the motivation for self-employment is too high. When for a person starting a business becomes a “matter of life or death”, it leads to excessive tension and stress, because every failure or difficulty in implementing plans, she is very disappointed. As a result, such a person may despair altogether, give up his intentions to work. Therefore, this category of people needs to pay more attention to the psychological support of self-employment.

Thirdly, one area of motivational work may be to address the fears of people with disabilities. Such people may not be active in starting their own business because they are afraid of some aspects of future employment: the rejection of the social environment, inability to cope with work tasks, fear of deteriorating health, fear of losing a pension (assistance), and so on.

Fourthly, it is the attitude towards a person with a disability in society. Such a person can fall victim to stereotypes anywhere if negative stereotypes about people with disabilities are firmly established in the community.

Fifthly, the level of development of social contacts can be a problem [6]. Social connections are essential when looking for a job in the speciality, and the development of their own business. Quite often, contacts with a person with a disability are closed to family, medical staff, and possibly some other people with disabilities. The situation is deteriorating in places where the infrastructure does not take into account the needs of people with disabilities, and such people have a reduced level of mobility as a result.

Finally, as analyzed in the previous section, the underdevelopment of institutions that would support people with disabilities at the start-up stage also hurts the number of businesses started by people with disabilities.

Institutional support is a significant factor in the development of entrepreneurship among people with disabilities. Studies around the world show that people with disabilities tend to have lower incomes and may even live on the brink of poverty [6]. This situation can be caused by various factors, among which it is especially important that people with disabilities may not be able to master a high-paying profession due to lack of access to appropriate vocational education. Lack of sufficient financial and material resources, in turn, can affect the ability of a person with a disability to start their own business. As some scholars have rightly pointed out [7], people with disabilities, although assisted in starting their own business, do not take into account the need to adapt the workplace to the needs of people with disabilities, which may require significantly more financial investment than the amount of assistance. Therefore, an important step should be the differentiation between people with disabilities and other people in providing state assistance to start their own business.

At the same time, the problem of psychological readiness of a person with a disability to start his own business remains no less important than financial. Several factors affect the existence of this problem:

1. Insufficient level of socialization of individuals with disabilities. Only now is the state's policy on inclusive education and barrier-free cities gaining momentum. At the same time, progress has not yet affected all educational institutions, as well as not all settlements in Ukraine, have been able to adapt infrastructure to the needs of people with disabilities. Therefore, many such people are forced to spend most of their time at home, study at home and sometimes even master the profession. Such people especially need support so that they have confidence in their abilities and can go from the idea of entrepreneurship to its implementation and further support of such activities.

2. Limited list of professions taught to persons with disabilities in the State Employment Service and rehabilitation centres. On the one hand, the occupations on the list that teach people with disabilities are in demand. However, on the other hand, as mentioned earlier, many other professions are in need that can be mastered by people with disabilities, and that can be more convenient for such people and can allow them to start their own business.

3. Fear of failure studied helplessness. Throughout life, a person with a disability may become accustomed to criticism, to doubts about their own ability to do and achieve something, and the source of such suspicions may be loved ones. It affects the decision as to whether to start one's own business: the fear of failure, the belief that it will not work out, and as a result, a person with a disability prefers a small amount of social assistance instead of trying to have a full professional life.

Without waiting for the government to solve its problems, Ukrainian society is moving forward and has been spreading the practice of social entrepreneurship throughout Ukraine for several years. “A social enterprise is a social economy operator whose primary goal is to have social influence, not to make a profit for its owners or shareholders. It uses its profits primarily to achieve social goals..[8]. The European Commission identifies three main characteristics-vectors of social enterprise [9]:

1) business vector - social enterprises have economic activity that brings profit and allows to distinguish these enterprises from non-profit organizations;

2) social vector - the primary and clear social goal at the heart of all activities that distinguish social enterprises from other ordinary enterprises;

3) management vector - which combines the two previous vectors so that business serves social purposes, and there are restrictions on the direction of profit distribution.

Social entrepreneurship is closely related to the concept of “inclusive entrepreneurship”. It is a concept that means the involvement of underrepresented groups in entrepreneurship to help them overcome their social and economic problems [5, p. 312]. As the name implies, this concept is closely related to the idea of inclusion, which in this case has a particular specificity. As some scholars rightly point out, inclusive entrepreneurship involves more than just the inclusion of everyone in social life by accepting them into joint activities. This concept is broader because it concerns the change of worldview, skills and competencies on the way to self-realization. Social enterprises can be aimed at supporting people belonging to vulnerable social groups, including people with disabilities. This practice is not new to Western Europe, whereas in Ukraine it used to be much less effective and much less frequent in the private sector. The media claim that social entrepreneurship is gaining momentum and scale in Ukraine. Still, social activists, politicians and society continue to point to the acute problems that people with disabilities face daily. In this situation, the question arises whether social entrepreneurship is significant enough and how it can help solve the problem of unemployment in this group.

Unfortunately, in Ukraine, there are no detailed official statistics on the number and characteristics of social enterprises. This lack of statistics makes it difficult to assess the effectiveness of social enterprises in solving social problems. According to some data, at the end of 2018, there were about 150 social enterprises in Ukraine, but these are enterprises that reported their existence. The exact number of enterprises that would meet the criteria of social entrepreneurship is still unknown. According to researchers and analysts, the institutional environment of social entrepreneurship in Ukraine is still weak and needs significant further development. Many, if not most, of the social enterprises that currently exist in Ukraine, have been established through international donor projects. It is unclear whether they will continue their activities after the completion of the projects, as Ukraine still does not have a developed state and private-public support system for social entrepreneurs. Despite the increase in the number of social entrepreneurs and the constant development of the institutional environment for social entrepreneurs, Ukraine lacks a developed legal framework that would define social entrepreneurship and establish a clear regular basis for their creation and operation.

socio-psychological discrimination disabilities

Conclusions

Thus, we believe that one of the promising areas of social policy for the employment of people with disabilities is to promote self-employment. This practice is actively used in many countries around the world. In Ukraine, a person with a disability who has expressed a desire to start his or her own business can receive a one-time allowance from the employment service. At the same time, available statistics show a low percentage of people with disabilities who have benefited from such support. Problems remain lack of previous experience, insecurity, lack of motivation for self-employment for people with disabilities, the ultimate goal of which is significant employment and economic growth. Several socio- psychological causes cause social tension, poverty, insecurity, material and moral degradation of persons with disabilities and their families.

Besides, the legislation excludes from tax benefits the payment of a single social contribution for persons with disabilities engaged in independent professional activity. It creates the preconditions for professional and socio-economic discrimination

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