JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Youth and young adults with disabilities experience many barriers in securing employment such as discrimination, inaccessible environments and lack of support. Youth often need to decide whether and how they should disclose their need for accommodations to employers, which can help them to do their best at work. However, few evidence-based toolkits focusing on disability disclosure exist for youth with various types of disabilities.

Objective:

The objective of our study was to conduct a pilot evaluation of a web-based toolkit to enhance disability disclosure for youth helping to advocate for their needs, and request workplace accommodations.

Methods:

We conducted two in-person co-development focus groups to design the web-based disability disclosure toolkit with and a pre-post survey. Primary outcomes focused on the relevance of the toolkit content, preliminary perceived impact on knowledge and confidence, and open-ended feedback of the usefulness of the toolkit. Secondary outcomes focused on effectiveness (ie, measures of self-determination).

Results:

A total of 14 youth with disabilities took part in the study (aged 20-25; 11/14, 78% female) including three who participated in the co-development focus group sessions and 10 youth who participated in the surveys. Our findings involved two main themes in the co-development sessions, which included: (1) disability disclosure and workplace accommodation experiences (2) usefulness of the tool (ie, relatable content, format and design, suggestions for further development); and (3) and perceived impact of the toolkit. The survey findings showed that the majority of participants reported that the toolkit increased or changed their knowledge or understanding of disability disclosure. Most participants reported that the toolkit helped to increase their perceived confidence in their daily activities. The majority of participants agreed or strongly agreed that the toolkit was easy to understand and comprehensive. Regarding preliminary impact of the toolkit, participants did not demonstrate any significant improvements in self-determination.

Conclusions:

Our findings emphasize the importance of co-creating a toolkit with youth to enhance its relevance for their needs. Our disability disclosure toolkit indicates preliminary potential as an educational resource for youth and young adults with disabilities as they secure employment. Further research is needed to assess the impact of the tool with larger samples to understand the impact of workplace disability disclosure decisions for youth with disabilities. Clinical Trial: Not applicable.