@Jimmyneutronsforehead
I agree with you wholeheartedly that if the advantages outweigh the negatives then more people will take up work but that will also include workplaces becoming more accessible to people with disabilities and more support for those of us who want to be self employed.
I agree. A LOT more needs to be done to support employers to take on people with disabilities, both practical, physical and mental support. There's some support for physical workplace adaptations for physically disabled people, but little support and awareness for ADHD, autism, aspergers, etc. People with, say, aspergers, can probably fulfil multiple types of work to a high standard, but often it's not the work itself that's the problem, it's the people around them, the workplace setting, etc. Workers usually expect all their colleagues to be "like them" and unintentionally cause anxiety and stress to others, even with simple acts like asking them out for group pub quizes, departmental meals, training activity days etc - things which can be really stress inducing and uncomfortable for some people. It takes a strong personality to say a solid no when there's workplace pressure from your colleagues to socialise etc. (Of course the same happens at school as ND pupils often have a miserable time due to bullying etc).
As for self employment support - yes, a huge YES, that support is desperately needed. I'm a small business accountant and have a lot of "disabled" clients, many of whom are running successful businesses. A lot of that is due to their "freedom" to create their own workplace, choose their own clients, choose their own work, choose their own hours, etc - i.e. the freedom away from the constraints of the "typical" workplace. I'd say half and half between physical and mental health conditions (but obviously, I'm no expert, just my observations as to how they look and how they behave). One guy who ran a "home office" based business as a marketing/commission/affiliate online business re company formations, mailing addresses, phone answering, etc - he didn't do that himself, he just set up websites and "subcontracted" his newly acquired clients to firms that did, taking finders fees, commissions, etc. I never actually met him in person for a few years as everything was done via email - I never even spoke to him on the phone. But for a particular reason, I had to visit him at home. I knew he was disabled because of his disability benefits he received, but I had no concept of how disabled he was - without wanting to sound awful, he was severely disabled, in a high tech wheelchair, and looked comparable to Stephen Hawking - he could barely speak and using eye recognition and joystick to type on his computer! I remain amazed to this day that he managed to set up and run a relatively successful small business with such physical disabilities!
We definitely need more grants/support etc for employers to take on disabled staff and more importantly to encourage disabled people to start their own self employments.