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Ergonomics and workplace adaptation topeople with disabilities

Bruno Maia de GuimaresFederal University of Pernambuco, Rua da Amizade, 109, apto: 703, Graas, Recife, Pernambuco, BrazilTel.: +55 81 87955755; Zip code: 52011-260; E-mail: bmguimaraes@hotmail.com

Received /Accepted: 25 July 2012

1. Introduction

People with disabilities (PD) account for about 15%of the world population, or one billion people [1].Within this context, the inclusion of this populationin the social-labor environment has been widely dis-cussed and encouraged by various laws.Some countries stipulate quotas for the employ-

ment of disabled people in public and private sectors.Germany has a quota of 5% for the employment ofseverely disabled employees in firms employing morethan 20 people. Turkey has a 3% quota for firms withmore than 50 workers [1]. Whereas in Brazil, laws es-tablish a quota of 20% for public sector enterprises andof 2% to 5% for private companies with over 100 em-ployees.Despite the attempts to include people with disabil-

ities at work, the number of such people seeking em-ployment and of those receiving job opportunities re-mains low. Data from several countries show that em-ployment rates of PD are smaller than the general pop-ulation [1]. A recent study showed that in 27 countriesworking-age personswith disabilities, on average, theiremployment rate, at 44%, was over half that for per-sons without disability (75%) [2].Several researches indicate that the main difficul-

ties faced by persons with disabilities to enter theworkplace are: the lack of adequate education andtraining [3,4], work experience [5], misconceptionsabout the ability of people with disabilities to per-

form Jobs [6,7] and belief that people with disabili-ties are less productive than their non-disabled coun-terparts [8].Thus, it is verified that job accommodation to people

with disabilities is a tough task that has encounteredsome difficulties, such as the lack of offering profes-sional training to PD, the presence of architectural andorganizational barriers and discrimination regarding aPDs functional potential. Thus, it is essential to under-stand the interaction between PD and the elements ofthe work system.

2. Importance of ergonomics

The implementation of ergonomics for the labor in-clusion of people with disabilities has not a special ordifferent focus to other applications; it will always lookto adapt work to the characteristics of people.To ensure adequate labor inclusion of disabled peo-

ple, Chi [9] mentions that an accurate and detailedevaluation should take place, focusing on two impor-tant aspects, one concerning the individual evaluation,which consists in ones interest in the work, ones skillsand disabilities which could affect the performance onthe jobs available; and another one based on the er-gonomic aspects, such as job demands and the charac-teristics of the tasks.Therefore, there is a need to compare the demands

of the job and the PDs capabilities. The goal is that the

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608 B.M. de Guimares / Ergonomics and workplace adaptation to people with disabilities

demands of work do not exceed the functional capaci-ties of the worker with a disability and that the work-place is accessible and safe. According to Tortosa [10],PDs jobs should allow or facilitate the development oftheir individual skills and abilities, while also prevent-ing the progression of their existing deficiencies and/orthe emergence of new ones. Thus, this avoids the PDhaving to make a great effort to adapt to the work orthe work falling far short of their professional qualifi-cations [11].According to Kumar [12], the process of fitting the

job through adjustment or modification to maximizeworker capability is ergonomics and parallel to theprocess of disability rehabilitation of the medical andhealth model. The ergonomic principle of enhancingefficiency and effectiveness is complimentary to theequalization of opportunity which seeks to enhanceenvironmental accessibility to people with disabilitiesthrough reduction in demand.Determining reasonable accommodations through

the use of ergonomics is an important step in providingan environment of inclusion at the workplace for indi-viduals with physical or mental disabilities. A success-ful work transition will require a disability-sensitiveworkplace free of physical, mental, and attitudinal bar-riers thus allowing an inclusive environment for allworkers [13].Thus, ergonomics is indispensable, since the adjust-

ments to the job can be adequately performed throughthe knowledge of the task, of the physical, intellectualand organizational demands of the jobs and the deter-mination of the functional capabilities of the disabledworker [14]. Therefore, the use of ergonomic princi-ples has a fundamental role to increase the participa-tion of individuals with disabilities at work.

3. Workplace accommodation

Workplace accommodations are individualized so-lutions that enable people with disabilities to carryout work tasks and be more productive. Examples ofreasonable accommodations include ensuring recruit-ment and selection procedures are accessible to all,adapting the working environment, providing assistivedevices, modifying working schedules, redistributingnon-essential tasks to other workers, and so. Thus, im-plementing workplace accommodations is a vital toolfor increasing job employment for individuals with dis-abilities.However, according to Williams et al. [15], the spe-

cific types of workplace accommodations commonly

used by each kind of people with disabilities were: forpersons with maintaining body position difficulties, themost common type was the use of ergonomic/customdesigned workstations to better position the work asaccommodation; the types of commonly identified ac-commodations for difficulty moving around were ac-cessible transportation; for people who had manipu-lation difficulties, the most common accommodationwas use of a buddy system to help with more phys-ically demanding tasks; for people who had troublecoordinating movements, the most-used accommoda-tions were voice recognition systems; accommodationsin the workplace commonly used to overcome visiondeficits were screen reading software and accommoda-tions used in the workplace to compensate for hearinglimitations consisted of hearing aids.One of the main concerns of employers to make

adjustments for the PD employees at work concernsthe costs and benefits received. However, Schartz etal. [16] published the results of 259 companies that hadmade adaptations of the job for PD and found that inthe first year after the accommodation, 49.4% of theemployers said they had not spent anything on adap-tations. As to the others, the average cost in the firstyear was $600. Additionally, the estimates for the di-rect benefits obtained, such as, for example, increasedproductivity and a decrease in absenteeism from 0 to$116,000, the average being $1,000.In the study by Solovieta et al. [17,18], the main

benefits obtained by companies based on job accom-modation to individuals with disabilities were: retain-ing skilled workers, an increase in worker productivity,eliminating the costs of training new employees, im-proving relations between workers, and an increase inthe morale and general productivity of the company.Thus, job accommodation to people with disabili-

ties may vary both in the complexity of each case andin the resources needed. Consequently, planning foreach adaptation also varies in time, effort and the num-ber and type of professionals involved, it being impor-tant for these to include physiotherapists, occupationaltherapists, doctors, safety at work engineers, architects,designers and other professionals. Moreover, the adap-tation process should involve the people affected (thePD, the employer and co-workers) as active partici-pants in obtaining a good result.

4. Conclusions

Thereby, it is clear that the adjustments of the work-place can be made through the knowledge of the tasks,

B.M. de Guimares / Ergonomics and workplace adaptation to people with disabilities 609

the physical, intellectual and organizational demandsof the jobs and the functional abilities of the workerwith disabilities. For this, the integration of a multi-disciplinary team, involving the areas of occupationalsafety and ergonomics to enable the survey, data anal-ysis and physical, intellectual and organizational rec-ommendations for the job, is important.However, it is important to note that there is no spe-

cific adjustment, in other words, predetermined adjust-ments for each type of disability, because each sit-uation is different from one another. Each worksta-tion has its own characteristics, as do the individualswith disabilities, since even with similar disabilities,each worker may have different functional capabilities.Their skills vary with the level of injury, treatments,education, training and previous experience.

References

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[10] Tortosa L, et al (1997). Ergonomia y Discapacidad. Madrid:Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales.

[11] Martins LB, Barkokbas Junior B, Guimares BM. Includ-ing people with disabilities at work: A case study of the jobof bricklayer in civil construction in Brazil. Work, 2012; 41Suppl 1: 4716-4721.

[12] Kumar S. Rehabilitation: An ergonomic dimension. Interna-tional Journal of lndustrial Ergonomics, 1992; 9: 97-108.

[13] Larson BA. The role of ergonomics in providing reasonableaccommodation. Work, 2000; 14: 175-177.

[14] Guimares BM, Martins LB, Barkokbas Junior B. IssuesConcerning Scientific Production of Including People withDisabilities at Work. Work, 2012; 41 Suppl 1: 4722-4728.

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