The Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), which is overhauling the sector and transforming the way persons experiencing disability access services, is modelled on research demonstrating the broader economic benefits of greater inclusive workforce participation (Deloitte Access Economics, 2011). Yet Australia ranks 21^st out of 29 OECD nations in disability employment rates (Darcy et al., 2016). The hospitality industry suffers persistent skills shortages although it has a long tradition of employing from society’s margins (Baum, 2015). Research has shown hospitality firms are more likely than other industries to hire people experiencing disability (Houtenville & Kalargyrou, 2014). Therefore, hospitality has the need, the tradition and capacity to implement and support lasting change in the employment of disability youth. In late 2016, a disability services provider (DSP) and a registered charity partnered in a mobile coffee cart social enterprise to create open employment pathways for a group of disability youth previously employed in the ‘sheltered workshop’ model. A 360-degree ethnography, combining interview and observational methods (Sandiford, 2015) was designed to investigate the holistic experiences of the youth and to gain insights into the levers and barriers regarding open employment. The agency/structure dualism framed the study, as it is recognised that agency is in itself not sufficient when its expression is constrained by an individual’s social deficits and the legacies of their entrenched disadvantage (Graham et al., 2015). In all five ‘baristas’ experiencing disability (across 10 interviews), 11 co-workers/managers from the DSP and charity and 21 customers comprised the sample. Previous research has identified industry’s reticence to employ people with disability as a key barrier, despite ability and willingness to work (Darcy et al, 2016). This study however, identified a complex range of structural factors inhibiting the agency of disability youth to self-determine towards open employment.

References

Baum, T. (2015). Human resources in tourism: Still waiting for change? A 2015 reprise. Tourism Management, 50, 204-212.

Darcy, S.A., Taylor, T. & Green, J. (2016). 'But I can do the job': examining disability employment practice through human rights complaint cases, Disability and Society, 31(9), 1242-1274.

Deloitte Access Economics (2011). The Economic Benefits of Increasing Employment for People with Disability. Sydney: Australian Network on Disability.

Farrugia, D. et al. (2016). Moral distinctions and structural inequality: homeless youth salvaging the self. The Sociological Review, 64(2), 238-255.

Graham, J. et al. (2015). Young adult social networks and labour market attachment. Journal of Social Policy, 44(04), 769-786.

Houtenville, A. & Kalargyrou, V. (2014). Employers’ perspectives about employing people with disabilities. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 56(2), 168-179.

Lysaght, R., Cobigo, V. & Hamilton, K. (2012). Inclusion as a focus of employment-related research in intellectual disability from 2000 to 2010: A scoping review. Disability and Rehabilitation, 34(16), 1339-1350.

McLachlan, R. et al. (2013). Deep and Persistent Disadvantage in Australia, Canberra: Productivity Commission Staff Working Paper.

Sandiford, P. (2015). Participant observation as ethnography or ethnography as participant observation in organizational research. In K. Strand [Ed]. The Palgrave Handbook of Research Design in Business and Management, Palgrave Macmillan: London, pp. 411-446.