Designing a social and labor inclusion model for persons with disabilities: participatory action research

Abstract

Introduction: The sociolabor inclusion of persons with disabilities remains a challenge, marked by structural inequalities, cultural barriers, and weak implementation of current regulations in Chile. This problem indicates the need to create a comprehensive model that promotes employability from an approach based on rights, equity, and active participation. Objective: To design an interdisciplinary and systematic sociolabor inclusion model that comprehensively addresses the factors that limit the sociolabor inclusion of persons with disabilities, from the perspective of gender, rights, and human development. Methodology: A qualitative approach was employed, using a participatory action research design developed through iterative cycles of diagnosis, planning, action, and joint reflection, allowing the collective construction of the model with key local actors from a rights-based approach. Results: The Sociolabor Inclusion Agency model was developed and structured into four phases: 1) personalized and participatory diagnosis/evaluation, 2) development of competencies and readiness, 3) sociolabor support and insertion, and 4) labor market mapping and linkage. Evaluation instruments, specific training activities, work practices, and technical follow-up were applied. Conclusions: The model represents a significant advance in labor inclusion by linking technical, psychosocial, and community approaches. Its flexible and contextual nature promotes work as a meaningful occupation and a means of individual and collective transformation. By situating persons with disabilities as social and occupational subjects, it promotes their real participation in productive contexts, challenging the structural barriers that have historically limited social and occupational participation.