Search

Background: The European Disability Strategy (2010-2020) seeks to significantly raise the proportion of people with disabilities working in the open labour market. The ERGO WORK project is a collaboration of academic and industrial partners in six European countries, focused on understanding and tackling barriers to workplace inclusion for workers with disabilities. Methods: This study sought to explore the perceptions and needs of stakeholders in terms of workplace adaptation to the needs of employees with disabilities. An exploratory online survey was completed by 480 participants across six countries. Results: The analysis suggests that workplaces could be further improved to meet the needs of employees with considerable scope for training within companies to raise awareness about employees' needs, employers' obligations and workplace adaptation. Conclusions: This snapshot suggests there is still a gap between intent and reality in workplace inclusion and further strategies are needed to improve the opportunities for employees with disabilities. The paper argues that ergonomics may have a key role to play in tackling these challenges and adapting the workplace environment and job design to suit the needs of individual employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the role of business networks, and especially on the ways in which formal and informal interactions among economic agents shape the tourist product. Local businesses are considered as agents who realize and/or create economic opportunities and develop new goals and strategies. Businesses are not viewed as independent entities, but as actors whose actions are embedded in structures of ongoing relations. As such, similar resources and activities based in rural tourism destinations do not necessarily have the same consequences at different times and places. Business networking is a crucial factor in organizing activities and resources at the local level, leading to spatially different levels of integration. Such differences are focused on here, using illustrative examples and findings from the case-study regions in the UK, Spain and Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]