AAPD Study: Low Employment, Low Wages Still Plague Americans With Disabilities
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
October 6, 2006

WASHINGTON, DC--Fifteen years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Americans without disabilities were still more than twice as likely to have a job last year than those with disabilities, according to a study released this week by the American Association of People with Disabilities and Cornell University.

For the 37-page "2005 Disability Status Report", researchers examined data from the 2005 American Community Survey, a new yearly analysis by the U.S. Census Bureau. They found that only 38 percent of working age adults with disabilities were employed last year, compared with 78 percent of adults without disabilities.

The researchers also found that workers with disabilities made, on average, $6,000 less for full-time work, and were 2 1/2 times more likely to live in poverty than those without disabilities.

"The employment gap between people with and without disabilities is long-standing," said Andrew Houtenville, director of Cornell's Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Demographics and Statistics, in a press statement.

"There is evidence that it is growing, and that people with disabilities are not participating in the recovery from the 2001 recession," he added.

Related:
"Dramatic Gap between Working-Age People With and Without Disabilities in Employment and Poverty" (Cornell University & AAPD)
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=73738
"2005 Disability Status Report" (Cornell University)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/06/red/1006a.htm

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Reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express international disability rights news service.
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