The social health conditions of women with disabilities participating in working life: An example of Yalova

It is essential for women with disabilities to be involved in working life both in order for them to develop themselves from a psycho-socio-economic point of view and to be accepted by other individuals. The working environment and conditions are one of the determinants that positively or negatively affect the social health of women with disabilities. Based on this information, the research aims to examine the social health conditions of women with disabilities involved in working life in relation to the working environment and conditions. Thus, a qualitative study was conducted that focused on the problem of how disabled women's perceptions and expectations about the work they do and the workplace they work in affect their social health conditions or well-being. The research has been planned by taking into account the stages of the case study pattern, which is one of the qualitative method patterns. Interviews were conducted with 20 disabled women. The primary data of the research were accessed through a semi-structured interview form. The MAXQDA program was used in order to establish meaningful and consistent relationships between the data obtained from the interviews. The data of the research were interpreted by dividing them into themes using the content analysis technique. Whether disabled women participating in the study have problems in working life, the attitudes and behaviors of employers and employees towards disabled women, the well-being of disabled women before they were involved in working life and their well-being after they were involved in working life, whether disabled women have expectations about working life, whether the employer offers additional opportunities to disabled women employees, whether the position in which disabled women work is appropriate for their skills, whether disabled women can achieve a balance between family life and working life, based on the thoughts and experiences of disabled women regarding the working conditions of the workplace where they work, it has been determined that the social health conditions of disabled women who participate in working life in Yalova is in a good direction. Taking into account all the findings, recommendations have been developed in the context of the ecological system approach to support women with disabilities participating in working life and improving their social health conditions. Keywords: Women with Disabilities, Work Life, Social Health, Well-Being, Social Work