Functioning, Capability and Freedom: A Framework for Understanding Workplace Disabilities

Work-related disability issues have been central in many of the U.S. public policy debates since the late 1970s and early 1980s. Although there is a robust business, legal, and public policy literature dealing with such issues philosophical analyses are not common. Accordingly, the paper examines, from a broadly philosophical perspective, some of the issues associated with restricted workplace employment opportunities due to the presence of one or more real or perceived disabilities. Following a review of the concept of disability, the paper examines disabilities and impairments using the concepts of functionings and capabilities developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. The paper then connects the capabilities approach to disabilities with the concepts of negative and positive freedom developed by Isaiah Berlin. The paper concludes by suggesting how to address employment and workplace discriminations of disabled people.