Study of Work Effectiveness of Physically Disabled Workforce through Applied Ergonomics

Abstract

There is a large population of disabled working people. These people constitute at least 2.21% of the total population of India as per 2011 census data. Out of the total population of persons with disabilities, approximately 1.50 crore are men and 1.18 crore, are women. These include persons with visual, hearing, speech and loco-motor disabilities, mental illness, mental retardation (intellectual disabilities), multiple disabilities and other disabilities. Among the workers with disabilities, 31% constitute agricultural labourers. Fifty percent of the PwD population in the age group of 15-59 years is working whereas 4% of children with disabilities in the age group below 14 years are working. They need special ergonomic attention, but a great deal of information is missing or incomplete about their work efficiency. Work is said to be one of the basic factors of human life. It is well known that appropriate workplace and tools preferable to disabled workers can contribute to the healthy and satisfied worker and this fact is even more important when we talk about workers with disabilities. Disability inclusion in the workplace is the manifestation of recognition that employees are human. Employees do not and cannot shed the complexities of their physical and mental selves while they are at work. Worker centric tools and furniture need to be developed by industrial designers at a cost-effective price. This study shows how the efficiency of the disabled workers can be increased by making changes in the workplace design for a “regular adult” population in the age range of about 15 to 60 years. Anthropometry, biomechanics, physiology, attitudes and behaviour of this population and the tools which they use during work provides necessary stimulation to workplace designers, owners of the establishment for making changes in the workplace preferable to the disabled workforce. We conducted testing to compare pre-test and post-test results using preferred products to evaluate the work effectiveness of the people with physical disabilities using statistical analysis (paired t-tests). The results after using worker preferred products showed a higher average post-test score than pre-test. This analysis indicated a statistically higher work effectiveness (α =0.05) and supports the research hypothesis.