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SAWHORSE
ADA: A guarantee to celebrate
By Editorial Board
Jul 26, 2011 12:00 am
http://www.sunjournal.com/our-view/story/1062821
There are currently 36 million people living with disabilities in the United States. That’s an estimated 12 percent of the nation’s non-institutionalized population, or slightly more than the combined populations of Texas, Ohio and Florida.
It’s a startling number, and one worth considering on today’s anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Conventional wisdom suggests the rate of disability increases with age, and statistics bear that out.
According to the U.S. Census, 37 percent of all Americans 65 years or older are disabled compared to 5 percent of children age 5 to 17. A full 10 percent of all Americans between 18 and 64 years — the prime years of employment — are disabled.
It is this employment group that most benefits from the ADA, which prohibits employers — public and private — from discriminating against otherwise qualified people with disabilities during the employment application process and while employed.
Does that mean that employers are burdened with making reasonable accommodation for the disabled, including providing handicap access and making sure diabetics have regularly scheduled breaks to eat? Yes.
It also means that more disabled people are able to work, though, lifting some strain on social services and other government programs.
According to the most recent Census figures, West Virginia has the highest percent of people with a disability, at 18.8 percent of the entire population. The state with the lowest percent is Utah, with 8.9 percent of its residents reporting a disability.
The 2010 statistics for the percent of disabled living in Maine have not yet been released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The Bureau has categorized types of disabilities, finding that 19.4 million Americans — that’s roughly the population of New York — have difficulty walking or climbing stairs.
Another 6.5 million Americans — the population of Massachusetts — have vision difficulties. There are 10.2 million Americans — more than the population of Michigan — who have difficulty hearing, and 13.5 million Americans — more than the population of Pennsylvania — have difficulty concentrating, remembering or making decisions. Of the latter, 2.1 million are children.
The highest percent — 22 percent — of all employed disabled Americans work in education, health care and social assistance industries.
Even with the requirements mandated under the ADA, a huge majority of America’s disabled population — 72 percent — is not employed. That compares with 27 percent of Americans without disabilities existing outside the labor force.
The median earnings for disabled are strikingly less than non-disabled Americans, with the median annual income of disabled Americans age 16 or over at $18,865. For non-disabled Americans in that same age group, the figure is $28,983, a variant of more than $10,000 a year.
One of the reasons for the striking difference in earnings may be lack of educational attainment, and the difficulty of getting and keeping a job with something less than a high school diploma, forcing many disabled to take a series of lesser-paid part-time jobs.
Twenty-eight percent of disabled Americans have less than a high school education; 12 percent of Americans with no disability share that level of education. Conversely, 31 percent of Americans with no disabilities have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with 13 percent of the disabled population.
The reality is that the non-disabled are 2.3 times more likely to be better educated, and consequently more employable, than the disabled. Which means that a far greater percent of the disabled population, age 16 and older, live below the poverty level; 21 percent of the disabled in this age group live in poverty compared to 11 percent of the non-disabled.
That hard fact may never change, but the employment atmosphere for the disabled is far improved from 1990 because of ADA, as employers work to make reasonable accommodations for employment.
Would employers have come to this point by this time on their own? We don’t know, and there’s no point in wondering.
ADA is our guarantee that no American will face discrimination in getting and keeping a job, and earning their place in the world, simply because of a disability.
That’s something to celebrate.
jmeyer@sunjournal.com
The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and editorial board.
By Editorial Board
Jul 26, 2011 12:00 am
http://www.sunjournal.com/our-view/story/1062821
There are currently 36 million people living with disabilities in the United States. That’s an estimated 12 percent of the nation’s non-institutionalized population, or slightly more than the combined populations of Texas, Ohio and Florida.
It’s a startling number, and one worth considering on today’s anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Conventional wisdom suggests the rate of disability increases with age, and statistics bear that out.
According to the U.S. Census, 37 percent of all Americans 65 years or older are disabled compared to 5 percent of children age 5 to 17. A full 10 percent of all Americans between 18 and 64 years — the prime years of employment — are disabled.
It is this employment group that most benefits from the ADA, which prohibits employers — public and private — from discriminating against otherwise qualified people with disabilities during the employment application process and while employed.
Does that mean that employers are burdened with making reasonable accommodation for the disabled, including providing handicap access and making sure diabetics have regularly scheduled breaks to eat? Yes.
It also means that more disabled people are able to work, though, lifting some strain on social services and other government programs.
According to the most recent Census figures, West Virginia has the highest percent of people with a disability, at 18.8 percent of the entire population. The state with the lowest percent is Utah, with 8.9 percent of its residents reporting a disability.
The 2010 statistics for the percent of disabled living in Maine have not yet been released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The Bureau has categorized types of disabilities, finding that 19.4 million Americans — that’s roughly the population of New York — have difficulty walking or climbing stairs.
Another 6.5 million Americans — the population of Massachusetts — have vision difficulties. There are 10.2 million Americans — more than the population of Michigan — who have difficulty hearing, and 13.5 million Americans — more than the population of Pennsylvania — have difficulty concentrating, remembering or making decisions. Of the latter, 2.1 million are children.
The highest percent — 22 percent — of all employed disabled Americans work in education, health care and social assistance industries.
Even with the requirements mandated under the ADA, a huge majority of America’s disabled population — 72 percent — is not employed. That compares with 27 percent of Americans without disabilities existing outside the labor force.
The median earnings for disabled are strikingly less than non-disabled Americans, with the median annual income of disabled Americans age 16 or over at $18,865. For non-disabled Americans in that same age group, the figure is $28,983, a variant of more than $10,000 a year.
One of the reasons for the striking difference in earnings may be lack of educational attainment, and the difficulty of getting and keeping a job with something less than a high school diploma, forcing many disabled to take a series of lesser-paid part-time jobs.
Twenty-eight percent of disabled Americans have less than a high school education; 12 percent of Americans with no disability share that level of education. Conversely, 31 percent of Americans with no disabilities have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with 13 percent of the disabled population.
The reality is that the non-disabled are 2.3 times more likely to be better educated, and consequently more employable, than the disabled. Which means that a far greater percent of the disabled population, age 16 and older, live below the poverty level; 21 percent of the disabled in this age group live in poverty compared to 11 percent of the non-disabled.
That hard fact may never change, but the employment atmosphere for the disabled is far improved from 1990 because of ADA, as employers work to make reasonable accommodations for employment.
Would employers have come to this point by this time on their own? We don’t know, and there’s no point in wondering.
ADA is our guarantee that no American will face discrimination in getting and keeping a job, and earning their place in the world, simply because of a disability.
That’s something to celebrate.
jmeyer@sunjournal.com
The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and editorial board.