Acceptance of Disability Promotes Proactive Career Behavior Among People With Disabilities

Despite representing a significant portion of the global population, people with disabilities (PWD) still suffer from adverse career outcomes. While existing studies mainly focused on how to create a supportive environment for them, an emerging stream of research emphasizes on focus on PWD’s proactive career behavior. We extend this line of research by examining who and when would display more proactive career behavior and why. Based on social cognitive theory and with a sample of visually impaired people in China, we found that acceptance of disability had an indirect effect through career-related self-efficacy, but only when perceived contextual barriers were low. The results highlight the need to treat PWD as potential change-makers in their careers, reveal factors that influence proactive career behavior for a unique group of people, and extend our understanding of acceptance of disability.