Literature review

Despite the differences in the definition of disability, time periods or the source of data across countries, it is almost agreed upon that disability has significant negative effects on both employment and earnings (Baldwin and Johnson, 1994; Kidd et al., 2000). Theoretically, the employment rate of people with disabilities is lower than that of people without disabilities due to reasons of both supply and demand (WHO, 2011). On the supply side, more effort and time may be required to get to the workplace or perform tasks (Barnes and Mercer, 2005). Hence, persons with disabilities usually face a higher cost of working. Accordingly, the reservation wage of a person with disabilities (namely the lowest wage a person is willing to work for) is more likely to be higher than that of a person without a disability. On the demand side, a person with a disability may be offered a lower wage due to discrimination, which occurs because of employer prejudice (that is, unfavourable attitude), asymmetric information or exploitation of persons with disabilities (WHO, 2011). Thus, a higher reservation wage combined with a lower offer wage may result in persons with disabilities to be less likely to be employed than persons without disabilities. Moreover, employers may be reluctant to hire persons with disabilities, as they may need workplace accommodations, which may affect the company’s costs and the company’s main objective of profit maximization (Schartz et al., 2006).

On the other hand, multiple empirical studies have indicated many benefits of employing persons with disabilities. These studies have found that most accommodations cost little or even nothing compared with the benefits gained from employing people with disabilities (Schartz et al., 2006). With the correct accommodations and preparation, persons with disabilities can thrive and become as, or even more, productive and qualified for a certain job than their peers without disabilities (ILO, 2015). In addition, the theoretical framework introduced by Barney (1991) provides a human capital–based approach to understanding the importance of hiring people from minority groups. According to Barney, employing persons with disabilities can provide a competitive advantage to companies in the form of a skilled and loyal source of workers. In addition, by employing persons with disabilities, companies can benefit from diversity[1], tax benefits, and a larger talent pool, improve their company’s image and avoid legal issues resulting from not employing persons with disabilities. Furthermore, not employing persons with disabilities may result in such macroeconomic costs as disability benefits, losses in human potential and productivity, losses in tax revenue and the resultant inhibiting impact on consumer spending. The positive effect of employment on people with disabilities themselves, economically, socially, and psychologically, is another benefit of increasing employment of people with disabilities.

Within this context, a worldwide movement has started to empower, support and integrate people with disabilities into their societies by removing the barriers they face and providing equal opportunities, generally, and in employment, in particular. For example, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities affirms the right to work equally for all people with disabilities, as a basic and natural means to safeguard human dignity (CRPD, Art. 27). Moreover, the employment of people with disabilities also has received explicit attention through the 2030 Agenda, more commonly known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs include various goals related not only to employment and decent work, but also to education, inequality, accessibility, data collection and monitoring of the SDGs. Thus, progress towards integrating persons with disabilities into the labour market, and ultimately mainstream society, can be used, by itself, as a gauge for achieving the SDGs.

Studies that deeply examine the position of people with disabilities in labour markets are plentiful in developed countries, but not in developing countries. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, in particular, there appears to be a wide gap in the literature. Even the limited literature that exists depends primarily on qualitative techniques. In Lebanon, for example, Wehbi and El‐Lahib (2007) discussed the obstacles persons with disabilities faced in finding and keeping jobs, and provided recommendations for change through surveying a sample of people with disabilities in a rural region. In Saudi Arabia, Mansour (2009) investigated the attitudes and concerns of employers about hiring persons with disabilities through a questionnaire distributed to different employers in the country. He found that productivity, work performance and lack of skills were the primary reasons employers chose not to employ persons with disabilities.

In Egypt, the literature concerning persons with disabilities is very limited as well. Most of this limited research is medical, cultural or social. The empirical studies, if any, are only qualitative. These studies aimed mainly to identify medical and social reasons for disability (Hagrass, 2005), its consequences on the quality of life for both persons with disabilities and their families (El-Saadani and Metwally, 2019), societal attitudes toward persons with disabilities, the Egyptian disability laws (Zidan, 2012) and rehabilitation services available to them (El Refaei, 2016). Other studies focused on specific groups of persons with disabilities, such as blind people (Sharaf, 2015) and people with intellectual disabilities (Abdelhameed, 2010). To date, the relationship between disability and education is the most frequently discussed research question in Egyptian literature (Sharaf, 2015; Lord and Stein, 2018; El-Saadani and Metwally, 2019).

To date, there is one quantitative study on chronic diseases in Egypt, but that study is not limited to people with disabilities. Rocco et al. (2011) used the 2002 Egypt Household Health Utilization and Expenditure Survey to investigate the effect of chronic diseases on the probability of employment through fitting a linear probability model to examine the impact of chronic diseases on the number of working hours per week and wage rates among the employed. They found that chronic diseases reduced the probability of being employed by approximately 25 per cent, and the number of working hours by about 22 hours per week, but had no impact on wages. Based on their data, these researchers concluded that since chronic diseases could significantly reduce employment and labour supply, the labour endowment might not be fully utilized.

Other relevant studies were qualitative, and more likely to be associated with a specific disability type or employment sector. For instance, Sharaf (2015) evaluated the role of local NGOs in empowering persons with disabilities to access education and employment in Egypt, with a focus on those with vision impairments. By conducting interviews with five local NGOs, the authors found that the strategies employed to empower visually impaired people in the labour market were somewhat restricted to providing “soft” skills and developmental training. Othman and Sorial (2017) focused on integrating persons with disabilities in the engineering sector, specifically architectural design firms in Egypt. The study conducted six case studies of architects with disabilities, in addition to a survey with a sample of architectural design firms. They found that architects with disabilities were not only able to do what other architects did, but they could also excel and outperform the latter’s achievements. Furthermore, companies that hired architects with disabilities were able to achieve competitiveness through diversity, incorporating a broader pool of experiences, avoiding legal concerns and improving their image.

This dearth of quantitative research on the experience of people with disabilities in employment was likely due to the lack of accurate and adequate data on persons with disabilities up to 2017. Such lack of data significantly hampered conducting studies aiming to develop a detailed profile of people with disabilities in Egypt and their employment status.

In 2017, Egypt started to measure disability status using new accurate measures developed by the WG. These measures have been used in quantitatively assessing the influence of disability on education (El-Saadani and Metwally, 2019). Sieverding and Hassan (2019) also used these measures when investigating the relationship between aspects of economic vulnerability and health measures. This study provided a descriptive analysis of employment as being one of the economic vulnerability aspects and disability as being one of the health measures. However, the present study can be considered as the first quantitative study to explore the impact of disability on participation and employment using the measures developed by the WG.

[1]      Diversity can pave the way for new ideas and effective problem-solving techniques to appear, hence better adapting to changes and challenges. Additionally, this diversity can enhance decision-making, motivate competition between workers, and eventually promote productivity and the company’s competitiveness and market share.