Adaptation of Jobs and the Employment of the Disabled (ILO, 1984, 132 p.): 1. INTRODUCTION

Adaptation of Jobs and the Employment of the Disabled (ILO, 1984, 132 p.)

		(introduction...)
		1. INTRODUCTION
		2. IMPAIRMENT - DISABILITY - HANDICAP
		3. MUTUAL ADAPTATION OF THE DISABLED AND THEIR WORK
		4. JOB DESIGN FOR THE DISABLED
		5. ADMINISTRATION AND ORGANISATIONAL PROBLEMS
		6. REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
		OTHER ILO PUBLICATIONS ON VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION
		BACK COVER

1. INTRODUCTION

In 1955 the International Labour Conference adopted the Vocational Rehabilitation (Disabled) Recommendation (No. 99). This Recommendation, inter alia, deals with the important question of employing the disabled: methods of widening employment opportunities are indicated; close co-operation with employers' and workers' organisations to promote maximum employment opportunities is recommended, and the need to stress the abilities and working capacities of disabled persons, not their disabilities, is emphasised. In 1983 the International Labour Conference adopted supplementary standards in the form of a Convention (No. 159) and a Recommendation (No. 168) concerning Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons). These new standards give new emphasis to the need to consider adaptation of jobs and workplaces as a means of creating employment opportunities for disabled persons.

Creating job opportunities for the disabled through the adaptation of workplaces, tools and machinery calls for detailed knowledge and information on working capacities of the disabled, as well as the physical and mental requirements of the job itself. This monograph aims at providing examples of methodologies and case studies of job analysis, assessment of work capacities, as well as job design and adaptation, drawing on the experiences of both industrialised and developing countries.

The main target group at which this booklet is aimed comprises production engineers, workshop managers, occupational therapists, industrial psychologists, medical officers, placement officers, employers, workers' representatives and the disabled themselves.

Based on the ILO's publication Adaptation of jobs for the disabled (Geneva, 1969), this revised edition has been prepared by Dr. Klaus North of the University of Technology, Darmstadt, Federal Republic of Germany.