Review of employment and disability: bibliographic analysis

Purpose: The social and work inclusion of people with disabilities is an important area of public action and research today. Future trends in the economy and lifestyle represent new challenges for the inclusion of disabled people. This paper aims to provide a bibliometric analysis of the growing amount of research publications currently dealing with problems associated with people with disabilities in employment. The papers are analysed to gain a perspective on any changes in the field.

Design/methodology/approach: In this study, the analysis is conducted using a literature review and bibliometric analysis techniques in particular. The bibliographic source supporting this analysis resulted from a search of Scopus using Disability, Employment and Work as search terms, which yielded 750 publications spanning the previous nine years. VOSviewer was applied to facilitate the analysis.

Findings: The findings indicate that up until 2016, the conversation revolved around health and employment, and from 2017 onwards the research has become more focused on the employment of people with disabilities. Socioeconomic factors affecting people with disabilities appear as one of the causes impairing their inclusion, such as the different intellectual disabilities curtailing their employment and education for work.

Research limitations/implications: This analysis limited itself to only one database and open access articles. Therefore, further research is needed with a larger bibliographic base covering other aspects related to the future of disability employment.

Practical implications: This review may serve as a valuable source of information for researchers for further investigations in this area. And to aid in the development of effective policies to address existing social stereotypes.

Originality/value: This research illustrates, through the use of VOSviewer, the present studies in the area of disability and employment and sets the foundations for further research.