The Impact Of Disability Education On Employment From The Perspective Of Social Integration

The disabled community is a large but less visible special group and a vulnerable group that faces widespread neglect and systemic exclusion by society.By the end of2018,the number of disabled people in China exceeded 85 million,with 35.66 million holding disability certificates,making China the country with the highest number of disabled individuals in the world.The negative connotations associated with the social identity of "disabled person" result in low self-identification among disabled individuals.Combined with the insufficient breadth,depth,and strength of government and societal protection for disabled people,these internal and external factors lead to the long-term exclusion of the disabled community from society.Protecting disabled individuals has become a "shortcoming" in Chinese society.Eliminating the systemic exclusion faced by the disabled community has become one of the important social issues that urgently needs to be addressed in contemporary China.With the continuous development of the economy and society and the widespread development of the disability movement,society’s basic views,attitudes,and opinions on the phenomenon and issues of disability are undergoing a historic shift from a personal model to a social model.From the perspective of the social model of disability,disability is actually an interaction mode between different social groups.The "labeling" and "stigmatization" brought about by the conceptualization of "disability" in a specific social environment make it a social problem.Since "disability" is a product of biased social values and malformed cultural constructs,the key to improving the exclusion of the disabled community lies in changing social cultural concepts and deeply ingrained attitudes.This article,starting from the theoretical proposition of "anti-exclusion," first demonstrates the formation and maintenance of the disadvantaged status of the disabled community and the paths to social integration from a theoretical perspective.The key to the "reproduction" of the disadvantaged status of the disabled community lies in the construction of the "other" identity of the disabled community by social culture and values,and the institutionalization of "exclusion" by social stratification.The effective path to solving this dilemma is social integration,i.e.,"education — enhancement of human capital — increase in employment opportunities— social integration." Secondly,based on relevant theories and methods of causal inference,on the one hand,the causal relationship between education and employment demonstrated in the employment ability analysis framework is verified and evaluated within the disabled community.On the other hand,the heterogeneity of the employment effects of education in different types of disabled groups and the social integration model of the disabled community are analyzed based on the differences in sources of heterogeneity.Finally,based on empirical analysis,countermeasures and suggestions are provided to reconstruct social views on disability,improve the social integration level of the disabled community,and fully develop the human resources embedded in the disabled community to promote the comprehensive development of the cause of disabled individuals in the new era.The main conclusions of this study are as follows:(1)By comprehensively reviewing the basic conditions,education,and employment status of the disabled community,it is found that the disabled community is highly heterogeneous.A significant reason for the lack of endogenous motivation for employment is the insufficient human capital.There are also many deficiencies in the relevant systems promoting the employment of the disabled community.Overall,the age distribution of the disabled community is concentrated in the working-age and elderly stages.There are considerable differences in the number of different types and levels of disability,with the physically disabled being the most numerous.The proportions of severely,moderately,and mildly certified disabled individuals are all around 30%,with very severely disabled individuals being relatively few.In terms of education,although the education of disabled individuals made significant progress during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period,the proportion of disabled individuals receiving higher education remains low.The accumulation and overlap of multiple factors such as illness and disability lead to insufficient human capital accumulation among the disabled community.In terms of employment,the lack of employment skills is a significant reason for unemployment among the disabled community.The demand for employment services is very limited,indicating that the employment of the disabled community is hit by both insufficient human capital and endogenous motivation.The crowding-out effect of social assistance and social welfare,as well as the support from family members,on the employment of the disabled community further exposes the institutional defects in the current policies promoting employment for disabled individuals.(2)The social integration path of vulnerable groups advocated by positive welfare ideology has been validated in the disabled community.Education can effectively enhance the employment opportunities of the disabled community,thereby significantly improving their level of social integration.Educational attainment,as an important symbol in social interactions,serves as a "key" to help the disabled community integrate into certain social groups.The social integration function of the division of labor enables the disabled community to directly participate in social affairs through employment.By screening the key variables that affect the educational attainment of the disabled community,constructing a propensity score matching model,and analyzing the "net" effects and directions of influence that different levels of education bring to employment within the disabled community,it is found that the effect of education in promoting their employment is undeniable.There is a certain degree of causal relationship between education and employment within the disabled community.For education levels at high school and below,there is an approximately linear relationship with the employment opportunities of the disabled community.However,when the education level reaches the university stage,there is a leap in effect—the promotion effect is nearly three times that of other education levels.The extremely high returns that university education brings to the employment opportunities of the disabled community are very robust compared to other educational stages,indicating that the marginal returns on educational investment for the disabled community have not yet diminished.(3)Analysis of the propensity score matching results,which were previously overlooked,reveals that the heterogeneity within the disabled community affects the impact of education.Overall,the effect of education is minimally influenced by omitted variables.Currently,the application of propensity score matching in social sciences has several shortcomings,primarily in testing the balance of the distribution of matching variables,the overlap of common value ranges,and sensitivity analysis of the results.This study strictly follows the procedures of the propensity score matching method to evaluate the employment effects of education within the disabled community.Additionally,it emphasizes the analysis of the balance of the distribution of matching variables,the overlap of common value ranges,and the sensitivity analysis results.The balance test results for the distribution of matching variables indicate that using propensity score matching can yield realistic estimates of the employment effects of education.The overlap test results for the common value range of matching variables show a trend towards clustering in the low score range.This implies that the heterogeneity between different types of disabled individuals leads to differences in individual abilities and varying attitudes towards education among different social strata,resulting in heterogeneous effects of education.The sensitivity analysis of the results indicates that,overall,the estimated employment effects of education within the disabled community are relatively unaffected by unobserved important potential variables.(4)The employment effects of education among different types of disabled communities show significant heterogeneity.By using disability types as the entry point and providing a detailed characterization of this heterogeneity,a series of findings different from previous ones can be obtained.The effect of education in promoting labor participation among the disabled community is markedly heterogeneous,with higher education having a significantly greater impact on employment than basic education.The heterogeneity within the disabled community suppresses the employment effects of basic education.For employment in communities with visual,hearing,speech,and physical disabilities,there are very distinct differences in the effects of university and high school education compared to primary education.Different types of disabilities impact individual health in varying ways and degrees.When this damage reaches a certain threshold,the positive effects of education on employment within the disabled community are quickly offset.The entry barrier to the primary labor market for the disabled community is high,but once they enter,abundant resources and opportunities can provide relatively equal labor participation opportunities.(5)The reproduction of social classes and the maintenance of the existing social structure are important functions of education.The diverse attitudes towards education across social classes result in the integration of multiple theoretical models in the social integration patterns of disabled groups.Drawing on the research paradigm of educational returns,stratification based on propensity scores can finely delineate the changes in employment opportunities for disabled groups with increasing levels of education,revealing the complex impact of "endowment" family resources on their social integration.Theoretically,there are three modes of social integration for disabled groups: one is the economically rational mode,the second is the self-realizationoriented mode,and the third is the inverted U-shaped mode that integrates the two.In practice,the social integration of disabled groups is demarcated by a certain level of education,presenting two distinct experiential patterns: a "stable-middle to high-level incentive" mode for disabled groups under specific levels of education;and a "fluctuating-middle to lower-level incentive" mode for disabled groups above that level.