The Institutional Limitations of Emancipation: The Inclusion of Disabled Employees in the Egyptian Public Context Post COVID-19

Drawing on 26 semi-structured in-depth interviews with disabled employees, this paper explores the work environment of disabled individuals in Egyptian public organizations and how it affects their feelings of emancipation. The findings show that institutional limitations translated into poor public policy implementation by the state and discriminatory organizational practices constitute major hurdles to the inclusiveness and empowerment of disabled employees. Particularly, we find that the weak law enforcement capacity of the state has led to poor policy implementation, and to a lack of institutional infrastructure that can support law implementation. Furthermore, poor organizational practices, such as the unavailability of health and education resources, fair selection and/or merit-based recruiting, and speech-related harassment have further amplified the negative experiences that people with disability encounter in the workplace. All of these factors limited the emancipatory feelings of disabled employees. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed at the end of the paper.