Disability and the socialization of accounting professionals

This paper investigates the professional socialization of disabled accountants and their employment within the UK accounting industry by examining the oral history accounts of 12 disabled accountants. Applying the literatures concerned with the professional socialization of accountants and the sociology of disability, this study draws attention to institutionalized practices within the field of accounting that serve to exclude or marginalize disabled accountants. Our narrators provide evidence of how aspects of professional socialization, such as the image and appearance of staff, the discourse of the client, the rigidity of accounting practice and importance of temporal commitment, impact on the employment of disabled accountants. Moreover, our narrators’ accounts suggest that accounting employers and professional bodies are unsupportive, inflexible, and display little understanding of the needs of their disabled employees and members.