Stairway to Heaven?

Abstract

The aim of the project ICT, disability and employment, funded by the Norwegian Research Council, is to understand how the development of the new IC-technology can be utilized in ways that increase disabled peoples’ chances to employment. The project’s fundamental assumption is an optimistic one; the new technology generates increased possibilities for labour force participation also for persons with severe disabilities. In this collection of articles we present a state of the art study of the political ICT strategies for disabled, and other different means that governments use in order to reach the goal of employment of disabled. The articles analyse the situation in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark, and has been developed in cooperation with researchers in the respective countries. The data sources are primarily public reports and research; in addition we have conducted interviews with selected experts in the field. The articles report from phase two (out of three) of a larger research project, and provide a basis for a more thorough empirical and analytical third phase. The articles describes key features of the reform landscape linked to ICT, disabilities and working life; analyse principal challenges for a social ICT strategy e.g. universal design and the system for diffusion of aid – and consider how these challenges has been met in the different countries. The articles also outline some political strategies for exploiting the social potential the technology might have, and present some of the authors’ recommendations for further development in this policy field