Work 67 (2020) 193–202 DOI:10.3233/WOR-203265 IOS Press 193 Exploring the right to work among persons with disabilities: The role of labor-oriented values Ofir Y. Pinto a , Michel Strawczynski b and Arie Rimmerman c,* a School of Public Policy, National Insurance Institute of Israel and Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel b School of Public Policy and Department of Economics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel c The Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel Received 5 November 2018 Accepted 9 August 2019 Abstract. BACKGROUND: The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) assumes that persons with disabilities have similar rights, motivations to work and personal values as those without disabilities. OBJECTIVE: The article examines the corroboration between this assumption and real-life facts to better understand the importance of labor-oriented values in people with disabilities. METHODS: We tested the relationship between human values, employment and wages among Israelis with disabilities who cope with prejudice, negative attitudes and a lack of accessible workplaces in comparison to Israelis without disabilities. RESULTS: We found that the effect of labor-oriented values on employment status is 70% higher among people with disabilities than among those without disabilities. Furthermore, persons with disabilities ranked power and achievement as important values related to employment, but these values were not included in the considerations of persons without disabilities. CONCLUSIONS: These results highlight the importance of labor-oriented values for people with disabilities to overcome challenges in the labor market. Our findings suggest that rehabilitation policies would benefit from identifying personal human values of people with disabilities at an early stage of their career. Keywords: CRPD, people with disabilities, work, human values 1. Introduction Societal views on the rights of persons with disabil- ities have changed over the last few decades. The first change relates to the transition from the medicaliza- tion of persons with disabilities to a social functional model, signaling that changes in their status require * Address for correspondence: Arie Rimmerman, The Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa 31905 Israel. Tel.: +972 4 8249235; Fax: +972 9 8345106; E-mail: rimmer@research.haifa.ac.il. social inclusion [1]. However, the most visible change involves the development of the United Nations Con- vention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and its purpose of guiding policies and prac- tices [2]. The adoption of the CRPD in 2006 marks a paradigm change toward human rights for persons with disabilities [3]. Particularly, it significantly tran- sitions from “objective needs to subjective rights and the promotion of quality of life” [4]. According to Article 27 [5] of the CRPD, “States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to work, on an 1051-9815/20/$35.00 © 2020 – IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved