Human adaptation to the environment plays an important role in their careers and substantially affects its professional development. Adaptation consists of many factors that imply positive or negative conditions of a person’s professional work.
The article is a theoretical outline of various possibilities for adapting people in the work environment on the basis of social sciences such as pedagogy, sociology, psychology.
The article is a theoretical outline of various possibilities of adapting a man in the work environment on the basis of social sciences such as pedagogy, sociology, psychology. The development of the topic is the analysis of the usefulness of selected theories of professional adaptation for special pedagogy in the functioning of people with disabilities. Complementing this analysis is pointing to various barriers to adaptation to the working environment of the disabled. Conclusions include, among others, strengthening of professional activation and social activation of people with disabilities.

What Volunteers Cause Social Change? – Comparative Research of Volunteer Groups Working with the Disabled

The aim of the study was to compare two groups of volunteers who work with people with disabilities: volunteers working in organizations led by social innovators and volunteers who are not affiliated to such organizations. The results show a different picture of both groups in the area of the declared value, objectives and attitudes towards people with disabilities. Volunteers working with social innovators have lower rates of misanthropy, higher individual indicators of social capital, and a higher rate of partnership and innovative attitude. The paper presents guidelines how to work with people with disabilities to maximize their integration into society and create social change.

In this presentation I try to explain the process of social integration of disabled people. I present the issues of the social and legal situation of the disabled, myths and stereotypes created by society and integration education (the presence of disabled children in normal schools). I prepared it using the available professional literature and generally accepted educational programmes in Polish schools. Moreover, I analised legislative acts concerning the disabled. I also used information from web sites, which are created by various organisations of the disabled. The analysis shows that the number of disabled people depends on the health condition, and living conditions of society and also the efficient work of the health service. Moreover, we must remember that the phenomenon of disability becomes more intensive with aging, as the consequence of the population growing older. Perceiving the status of a disabled person depends on such factors as: value systems in a given society, cultural influences and socioeconomic status of a country. If the marginalisation of certain social groups lasted for a long time, a completely natural reaction in such a situation would be a tendency to strengthen and consolidate one’s identity, and also cultural and social distinction. The prejudices and stereotypes, concerning the disabled functioning in society, account for the main difficulties in their full revalidation and rehabilitation. The idea of integration, which means their full inclusion in social life, requires a change in the attitudes from negative to positive: tolerance, acceptance and cooperation.