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Please take our quick, anonymous poll to help continue research on work-life balance & disability issues.
Poll: Have you experienced physical assult in the workplace?
Work-Life Balance & Disability Diagram
This diagram shows how having a disability can affect a person both at work and in their personal life. Although workers with disabilities have the same types of work and life concerns as their colleagues without disabilities, they face some additional challenges.
Additional Challenges
For instance, while workers with and without disabilities may have family responsibilities, employees with disabilities may encounter negative attitudes about their right or fitness for parenting given their disability. At work, people with disabilities are more likely to experience harassment and discrimination. And, although leisure activities can help any worker to manage stress from their work and personal life, inaccessibility of leisure sites or unwelcoming attitudes can make for more stressful leisure experiences.
Although workers with disabilities have the same types of work and life concerns as their colleagues without disabilities, this model shows some of the additional work-life challenges faced by employees with disabilities.

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Nearly 30% of participants in YTI's Work-Life Balance & Disability Study had children under the age of 18 living at home.
“If I can address the personal stuff and feel well physically, everything else falls into place and I feel self-motivated to do anything I wish.”
- Participant, YTI Work-Life Balance & Disability Study
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“Work… (is) an opportunity to me to show what I can do. It becomes very difficult when the social messages that you get all the time from various places are that you don’t have a lot of value.”
- Patti Clay“Working is hard. But, not working is harder”
– Christina Crosby, author of A Body Undone
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“It takes a LOT of willpower to say NO when I used to be able to say YES to so much more.”
- Participant, YTI Work-Life Balance & Disability Study“Sometimes I wish I could change it. I wish I could just do the things that I want to do, but I’m finding more creative ways to do what I want to do without compromising my health.”
- Aubrey Lang
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“I am careful not to over commit, but instead offer to try and help so that I am not boxed in on a schedule doesn't offer the flexibility I need.”
- Participant, YTI Work-Life Balance & Disability StudyAdditional Resources
For more information about issues raised by participants in YTI’s Work-Life Balance & Disability Study, refer to the project-related publications and other sources listed below.
Cook, L. H., (in press). Workplace bullying and harassment of individuals with disabilities. In T.
Heller, S. Parker Harris, C. Gill, & R. Gould (Eds.), Disability in American Life: An Encyclopedia
of Concepts, Policies, and Controversies Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.
This article explains what workplace bullying is, and how anti-harassment law applies to
disability-related bullying.
von Schrader S., & Cook, L. (in press). Disclosure & Self-Identification in the Workplace.
In T. Heller, S. Parker Harris, C. Gill, & R. Gould (Eds.), Disability in American Life: An
Encyclopedia of Concepts, Policies, and Controversies Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.
This article explains the difference between disability disclosure and disability
self-identification in the workplace, as well as the benefits and potential drawbacks that can make
disclosure decisions uneasy for workers with disabilities.
L. Cook. (2017, August 30). Family caregiving, disability, and work-life balance. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/family-caregiving-disability-work-life-balance-northeast-ada-center
This blog post highlights how being in the role of caregiver and/or care recipient may influence
the work-life balance of people with disabilities.
Cook, L. (2017, August/September). The workplace disclosure dilemma. Ability Magazine, 2017, 42-43.
Retrieved from https://abilitymagazine.com/disclosure-decisions-pros-and-cons
This article describes some of the factors to consider when deciding whether or not to disclose a
disability in the workplace. It includes findings related to disability disclosure from YTI’s Work-Life
Balance & Disability Study.
Cook, L.H., Foley, J.T., Semeah, L.M., (2016). An exploratory study of inclusive worksite wellness:
Considering employees with disabilities. Disability and Health Journal, 9(1), 100-107. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dhjo.2015.08.011
This paper presents findings from a study that explored participation in employer-sponsored
wellness programs by workers with disabilities. Individual, social, and organizational factors,
including the provision of user-friendly marketing materials and social support from workplace
colleagues, influenced participation.
Cook, L. H. (2014, Oct). Balancing work, life and disability. Ability Magazine, 2014, 58-59.
Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1624968869?accountid=10267
This article describes possible work-life challenges for people with disabilities and offers
suggestions for effective work-life management.
Cook, L. H., & Shinew, K. J. (2014). Leisure, work, and disability coping: “I mean, you always
need that ‘In’ Group.” Leisure Sciences, 36(5), 420–438. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01490400.2014.912167
This paper presents findings from a qualitative investigation of the role of leisure in the
work-life balance of employed people with mobility impairments. It highlights the benefits of a positive
disability identity, the importance of accessible leisure, and the value of similarly able friends on
work-life management.
von Schrader, S., Malzer, V., & Bruyère, S. (2014). Perspectives on disability disclosure: The
importance of employer practices and workplace climate. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal,
26(4), 237–255. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10672-013-9227-9
This paper presents findings from a survey of individuals with disabilities focused on
identifying and better understanding the factors that influence disability disclosure decisions. Results
highlight the barriers and facilitators that influence individuals’ decision to disclose and the
important role that employers, managers, and workplace climate play in the decision.
Santuzzi, A. M., Waltz, P. R., Finkelstein, L. M. & Rupp, D. E. (2014), Invisible disabilities:
Unique challenges for employees and organizations. Industrial & Organizational Psychology, 7,
204–219. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/iops.12134
This paper proposes that a worker’s decision to adopt a disability identity in the depends on
various factors that function at the intraindividual, interpersonal, organizational, and societal
levels, impacting disability disclosure and requests for accommodations, as well as workers’ safety and
well-being.