Quality of life of workers with an intellectual disability in supported employment

Aim This study investigate what characteristics of supported employment increase quality of life and whether quality of life is higher in supported employment workers or the sheltered ones in Spain. Typicalness, the degree to which the characteristics of a job are the same as those of co-workers without a disability in the same company, was considered as one of the supported employment characteristics in the analysis. Method Two groups were put together to obtain the data using two questionnaires that were administered by trained professionals. Correlational analysis of the data and MANOVA were also employed. Results No differences were found between the two groups regarding quality of life but results indicate that in supported employment, high levels of typicalness are associated with a higher quality of life and that the handling of certain characteristics of support and the job, for example the hours of direct external support, are related to the enhancement of quality of life of the workers. Conclusions Workers in supported employment show the same quality of life as those in sheltered employment centers. In Spain, the greater the typicalness of the employment, the higher the quality of life. The implications of this for the amount of direct external support for workers with disability is that such support should be used only when absolutely necessary - the minimum support necessary to encourage development.