Employment Policy for People with Developmental Disabilities: Practice in Washington and Minnesota

Abstract

People with disabilities are one of the most under-employed populations in the United States. According to the Cornell University Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Demographics only 36.9% of people with disabilities in the United States aged 21 to 64 were employed in 2007, 42.8% lower than people without disabilities employed at a rate of 79.7% (Erickson & Lee, 2008, p. 24). People with intellectual disabilities were employed at an even lower rate, 26.8% in 2006 (Institue for Community Inclusion, 2008). Though surveys vary in how they define disability or employment (Field & Jette, 2007), survey data consistently shows employment rates significantly lower than the non-disabled population. Many studies have even shown a decline in employment rates of people with disabilities since the passage of civil rights legislation, the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 (DeLiere, 2000; Acemoglu & Angrist, 2001; Kruse & Schur, 2003; Beegle & Stock, 2003; Houtenville & Burkhauser, 2004; Moon & Shin, 2006). Some of the reasons for this decline include Fears among employers at the cost of empoying people with disabilities, fear of people with disabilities themselves of losing health care and other public benefits.