Breaking through the disability glass barriers: how managers and organizational leaders can support the career advancement of persons with disabilities

Most guidance for managers and organizational leaders on disability at work focuses on getting people into jobs, particularly at the entry-level. While this is an important start, it leaves unaddressed the career advancement goals and aspirations of many persons with disabilities. In this article, we share contemporary research on the career advancement barriers that persons with disabilities encounter, called “glass barriers”.We then introduce a model that managers and organizational leaders can apply in their work to make career advancement more disability inclusive. This model, called the “three-legged stool”, includes 1) strategies that employees with disabilities can engage in to manage their own career advancement, 2) information on how managers and others at work can support the career development of employees with disabilities, and 3) how organizational programs, senior leader practices, and policy can be designed to make career advancement more disability inclusive. We conclude with 22 recommendations on how to support the career advancement of employees with disabilities, along with various evidence-based tools and resources that can help make this work possible.