The target group of this study—people with disabilities who work and who are cared for in institutions that offer occupational therapy—is largely absent from the discussions about urban agriculture. When implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, education and work are essential aspects, especially for the self-determination of people with disabilities. However, people with disabilities are currently often prevented from truly participating in society. The main research objective of this study lies on the identification on systemic barriers to inclusion into horticultural working life as well as possible solutions. The aim of this study was to find out how inclusion processes could be facilitated in the field of urban agriculture in Vienna. A pilot project was carried out for this purpose during May and October 2019. A university, three social institutions with seven employees, two horticultural farms with two farm managers and fifteen people with disabilities took part in this pilot project. During the tomato harvest, action research was applied, evaluated and modified. At the same time, the authors tried to contribute to Grounded Theory. One of the results of this study is the suggestion that offers in the field of urban agriculture should go beyond pure cooperation between social institutions and horticultural farms. A social-ecological scenario with agro-ecological inclusion farms is elaborated. It is concluded that the establishment of such farms in terms of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities in Vienna could bring the city closer to reaching the Sustainable Development Goals. This is exemplified in a new framework on social-ecological inclusion processes in the world of work.

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BACKGROUND: To promote the successful and sustainable inclusion of people with disabilities in different activities such as work, more precise job matching efforts may be of value, especially because people with disabilities are employed at a lower rate than people without disabilities. Requirement profiles as well as profile comparisons have not yet been recorded for horticultural work processes. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to document precisely the work process of the cuttings production of the flower tradescantia and to compare the capabilities of people with disabilities with the requirements for this work process for the purpose of verifying that the tool employed was usable. METHODS: A skilled worker performed the cuttings production of tradescantias according to good horticultural practice. Additionally, five people with disabilities participated in this study. On the one hand, a structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. On the other hand, the work processes were documented with video recordings and described related to REFA (Association for Work Design, Business Organization and Corporate Development) and evaluated according to IMBA (Integration of People with Disabilities into the Working Environment). RESULTS: Apart from the too long working hours, the work in the cuttings production was feasible for the five subjects who had different types of disabilities. There were situations of underchallenges of different degrees, but no overchallenges. It was necessary to assess each subject individually for the risk of accident. CONCLUSIONS: IMBA proved to be an effective tool to evaluate and analyse work activities for the purpose of including people with disabilities into horticultural work processes. Thus, it has the potential to facilitate a socially sustainable and skill-oriented work participation for persons with disabilities.