Research shows connections between workers with disabilities, employment status, and poverty
November 7 2007
Findings released in Disability Status Report, the only report of its kind in the nation
ILR School and Cornell University researchers have reported that there is a dramatic gap that separates working-age people with and without disabilities employed in the workforce.
The Third Annual Disability Status report, the only report of its kind in the nation, reveals that 37.7 percent of people with disabilities are employed, compared with 79.7 percent of people without disabilities. There are 22,382,000 people with disabilities of working age (21-64), which is 12.9 percent of the total working-age population.
The finding is part of a series of reports released at a Nov. 7 presentation on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. by Cornell University in collaboration with the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD). . The Disability Status Report, containing a range of statistics about people with disabilities, including statistics by state, is available at www.DisabilityStatistics.org.
The researchers also found that the poverty gap is 15.9 percent—that is, 25.4 percent of working-age Americans with disabilities live in poverty compared with 9.5 percent of those without disabilities. People with disabilities constitute 28.4 percent of the working-age American population living in poverty.
"The employment gap for people with disabilities is long-standing. They are not participating in the recovery from the 2001 recession," says Andrew Houtenville, director of Cornell's Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Demographics and Statistics (StatsRRTC).
The StatsRRTC is the statistics arm of three Cornell units: the Employment and Disability Institute in the ILR School, the Institute for Policy Research located in Washington, D.C., and the Department of Policy Analysis and Management in the College of Human Ecology. It is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.
The reports, issued annually in the fall by Cornell University, "fill a pressing need for timely and relevant statistics about people with disabilities," Houtenville adds. "We hope they will become an annual event that policymakers, advocates, the media and people with disabilities across the United States will anticipate and depend on," he said.
