To what extent and based on which factors is it possible for people with intellectual disabilities to negotiate work as a goal for their identity? Based on 18 reconstructed life histories, Oliver Koenig constructs the theoretical model of Enabling and Disabling. It illustrates how specific qualities of different contexts can either grant or deny individuals access to certain resources. The accumulation of this "negotiation capital" throughout one's life is ultimately crucial in determining whether individuals are empowered to actively shape the structures around them and develop and realize independent identity concepts, or whether, in the absence of these resources, they contribute to the reproduction of the social construction of intellectual disability. The model is also intended to strengthen this understanding.