Tackling barriers to the inclusion of disabled people in the european workplace through ergonomics

Abstract

The ERGO WORK project is a collaboration of academic and business partners in six European countries. The project is focused on understanding barriers to workplace inclusion, and tackling these barriers through education in ergonomics and universal design and collaboration between academia and business. An exploratory study suggested that workplaces could be further improved in the partner countries to meet the needs of disabled people and there was considerable scope for training within companies to raise awareness about employees’ needs, employers’ obligations and workplace adaptation. The findings led to the development of new Ergonomics curriculum content in Slovenia and Poland that was implemented in two partner universities. The curriculum was then tested through a series of industrybased projects. The projects formed collaborations between business, employees with disabilities, students and academics and involved adapting the workplace, job design and products to specific employee needs.