Employer Attitudes Towards the Work Inclusion of People With Disability Laura Nota, Sara Santilli, Maria C. Ginevra and Salvatore Soresi Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy Accepted for publication 16 October 2013 Background This study examines the importance of work in life of people with disability and then focuses on employer attitudes towards these people. In the light of Stone and Colella’s model, the study examines the employer attitudes and the role of variables such as type of disability, employer experience in the hiring of persons with disabilities, the description of hypothetical hirees with disabilities, the ways in which employers evaluate work performance and social acceptability, and the work tasks that they consider appropriate for workers with disability. Method Eighty employers were randomly assigned to standard condition (candidates with disability were presented by referring to the disability they presented) or positive condition (candidates were presented with reference to their strengths). Results It was found that the type of disability and its presentation influence employer attitudes. In addition, realistic and conventional tasks were considered appropriate for hirees with disabilities. Conclusions Implications were discussed. Keywords: disability, employer attitudes, work inclusion Introduction The workplace inclusion of people with disabilities has become a pressing issue in our ostensibly ‘modern’ society; in particular, in Europe, the employment rate for people with disability is only 11.3%, and 10.3% of disabled unemployed individuals are currently seeking work (European Commission 2008). In Italy, up to 66% of people with disability remain excluded from the work market: only 3.5% are employed and 0.9% are seeking work. Among individuals with disability actually employed, those with physical disability have the highest employment rate (16.3%), as compared to the other types of disability. In general, the situation, moreover, is apparently worsening, due to the rather new phenomenon of constant job market uncertainty, caused by globalization and by continual and rapid technological advances (Wehmeyer et al. 2011). The current economic crisis businesses are undergoing is associated with fewer investments in human capital, reducing hiring opportunities thereby, especially for people considered unable to continually meet high productivity standards (Stensrud 2007). Specifically in the Italian context, data on the impact of the economic crisis reveal a severe drop in the number of disabled workers hired, with a 2-year hiring reduction of 34% (National Institute of Statistics 2011). Yet work is a crucial issue in the lives of people with disability to the construction of personal identity, life needs satisfaction and finding meaning in one’s life, and it also provides important opportunities for applying knowledge acquired and personal talents (Szymanski & Hershenson 2005). Moreover, competitive employment contexts allow people with disability to work alongside non-disabled individuals and to reap the same benefits, such as standard wages and contracts as these other workers, in similar jobs for the same business (Verdugo et al. 2006). Despite various national and state policies promoting supported employment, the placement of adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities in competitive context is quite low (39%) (Wehman 2011). Stigma still plays an important role in this phenomenon, as people with disability are avoided by others, subjected to prejudice, and are frequently viewed as being less desirable employees than individuals with no disability (Colella et al. 1998). © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 10.1111/jar.12081 Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities 2013 Published for the British Institute of Learning Disabilities