Policy

Veterans with Disabilities

According to the U.S. Census, veterans who served after September 11th have a 43% chance of acquiring a disability. At the same time, only 27% and 16% respectively of Gulf War and Vietnam War Veterans had a service-connected disability. Veterans serving in “peacetime” had a 9% chance of acquiring a service-related disability.

Our former Policy Fellow Roy Payan is a proud veteran with a disability. Roy acquired a visual impairment overseas, and when he returned, he learned to be independent with a new set of skills. Roy sought his independence through education, where he would face new challenges and barriers, including discrimination and ableism while completing his degree. Roy fought discrimination by taking his case to the courts for resolution.

Roy is not alone. Nearly two in three student veterans share that they have a disability and have faced barriers. It is essential to ensure that all people with disabilities have a path to the life they want. [continue reading…]

Suad Bisogno

RespectAbility is proud to be a member of the Association of People Supporting Employment First (APSE), a national organization that promotes the importance of community-integrated employment for people with disabilities. In early June, Wally Tablit, Senior Director for Leadership and Workforce Development, and I attended APSE’s annual conference in Columbus, Ohio, where we met with leaders from across the country. After the conference, I was able to follow up with APSE board member and disability employment leader, Suad Bisogno, CEO of Integrated Resources Institute. Explore our conversation about employment first policy and some of the crucial issues facing Suad’s home state of California. [continue reading…]

George H.W. Bush signs the ADA into law.

Almost everyone has seen a different, more prosperous world because of the ADA. 33 years in, we know this journey is long and not yet over. Inaccessible programs and businesses still exist. People with disabilities still languish in congregate care settings for lack of funding for home-based programs. The employment rate of people with disabilities still lags far beyond our non-disabled peers, even in this era of full employment. Below, read reflections from our Policy team about what the ADA means to them.

“The ADA is a representation of the willingness of people with disabilities to seek justice for themselves and for those who came after them. Without those people willing to painstakingly push for the passage of the ADA, I would not have the privilege to be employed and do the work we do here at RespectAbility. For a visually impaired person growing up with the rights I had because people before me were willing to fight, the ADA is a reminder that I not only have the honor of pushing forward the work, but I have the responsibility to continue to build upon that work.” Rostom Dadian, Policy Associate [continue reading…]

Celebrating Pride Month

In recognition of Pride Month, RespectAbility celebrates the diversity and positive impact the LGBTQ+ community adds to the United States. At the same time, we recognize that the data shows that full equity for the LGBTQ+ community in public life has yet to be achieved. This is of particular importance to the disability community, because there is tremendous intersection between the disability and LGBTQ+ communities.

According to a Gallup poll, the number of adults identifying as LGBTQ+ in America is 7.1% (approximately 23.5 million people), double what the data showed in 2012. At the same time, only 13 members of the U.S. Congress identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community: 2 senators out of 100, and 11 out of the 435 (2.5%) members of the House of Representatives. This means that the LGBTQ+ community is markedly underrepresented in the halls of power.

Even as we wait for and work toward better representation, we must also work to ensure that those in power right now represent and listen to the needs of communities historically left out of the conversation. This applies especially to those who are multiply marginalized, like people at the intersection of the disability and LGBTQ+ communities. According to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), 36% of LGBTQ+ adults self-report as having a disability, and 52% of transgender adults in particular self-report a disability, compared to 24% of non-LGBTQ+ adults who self-report a disability. [continue reading…]

The heart of RespectAbility’s self-employment project is a collaborative gathering of best practices and resources. Like most collaborative processes, the project has many moving parts, but that doesn’t mean that we need to wait to start sharing the information with our readers. RespectAbility Policy Fellow Audrey Bayne has invested significant time and energy learning about state Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) self-employment programs. Below, she briefly describes how Texas is leading the way.

The national Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) argues that the inherent flexibility of self-employment is often a better match for people with disabilities than traditional “nine to five” employment, making them more likely to retain their employment status. VR clients whose cases end in self-employment make an average of nearly 80% more income than their peers who obtain traditional competitive integrated employment (CIE). Despite self-employment providing significantly more flexibility and income than traditional CIE, many states’ VR offices are not adequately equipped to assist their clients in pursuing this kind of employment.

In fact, despite its significant benefits, nationally only 1.7% of VR cases end in self-employment. Virginia Commonwealth University’s Rehabilitation Research and Training Center surveyed several hundred VR employees and found that a majority of those employed by state Vocational Rehabilitation offices did not feel adequately equipped to assist their clients in seeking self-employment. RespectAbility’s self-employment project is looking at the successes of different states, in the hopes that we can all learn from each other.

One standout state in the area of self-employment for VR clients is Texas. In 2019, 9.1% of Texas clients’ cases closed in self-employment, more than five times the national average. There appear to be some secrets to Texas’ success. [continue reading…]

As a final project for her Spring Fellowship, Policy Fellow Emily Snodderly wrote and delivered this policy speech examining the practice of paying subminimum wages to people with disabilities.

In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act created the federal minimum wage, but it included an exception for people with disabilities. The exception was intended to preserve employment opportunities for people, especially wounded veterans, who couldn’t keep up with “normal production” in factories. Now, 85 years later, thanks to this law, an estimated 53,000 workers in the United States earn less than minimum wage, sometimes pennies per hour, solely because they have a disability.

This is the typical experience of a worker with a disability earning subminimum wage. We’ll call her Janet. Janet is a 35-year-old woman with an intellectual disability. For the last 15 years, she has worked in something called a sheltered workshop. Like Janet, all her coworkers have some sort of disability. For 10 hours a week, they sort and package products like jewelry or soap. Every 6 months, Janet’s supervisor times how fast she works in order to justify her current wage. She earns $4 an hour–about average for sheltered workshop employees. After an entire year of sorting and packaging the same way every day, Janet has earned a grand total of $2,000.

Oftentimes, when I first tell someone about subminimum wage employment, their reaction is positive. They say, “Isn’t that a good thing? If employers can pay lower wages, it incentivizes them to hire people with disabilities. Plus, people who couldn’t otherwise get a job get the satisfaction of having a job.” However, this perspective is based on two false assumptions. [continue reading…]

Many Americans with and without disabilities use fixed-route transportation like a city bus or commuter rail to reach their desired destination. However, people with disabilities may need additional transportation assistance to reach destinations beyond traditional public transportation routes. Public transit authorities provide paratransit services for eligible persons with disabilities if they cannot safely travel short distances to a bus stop. For instance, minibuses are used for these purposes. However, there can be issues with the timeliness of these services and the limited distance that is covered.

Federal law requires city transportation authorities to provide paratransit for eligible people with disabilities within three-quarters of a mile of the fixed route of a city bus or commuter rail. Transportation authorities are not required to provide paratransit services beyond these limits but may extend services. This regulation aims to enable people with disabilities to reach their destinations safely but creates challenges depending on the location. [continue reading…]

Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month

In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, RespectAbility recognizes the contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) to our society.

According to the Annual Disability Statistics Compendium, there are 18,814,944 Asian Americans living in the United States. Out of that number, 1,454,941 have disabilities. The states with the largest population of Asian Americans with disabilities are California and New York, which have 509,446 and 131,682 of AAPI with disabilities in residence, respectively.

A 2021 report from the New American Economy research fund found that the AAPI community is the fastest-growing minority group in the United States. In the last decade, the AAPI community grew by 25.5%, contributing to about 20% of the total population growth in the country. In 2019, AAPI households brought in $783.7 billion and were able to contribute $167.9 billion in federal taxes, and $72.5 billion in state taxes. However, according to the same report, the AAPI community still had about $543.4 billion in purchasing power after taxes.

This is the very definition of a growing and thriving community, and yet it is clear that stigma and bias continue to result in under-diagnosis of disabilities in the community, leading to gaps in outcomes. [continue reading…]

Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (AANHPI) students are the least likely of all races to receive special education services. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 15% of all public school students are in special education, compared to only 8% of Asian American students. The gap is less drastic for Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students at 12%, but it is still significant. This gap means it is very likely that AANHPI students who would benefit from special education services are not receiving them.

Previous research and opinion articles have blamed this discrepancy on AANHPI families’ resistance to special education due to stigmas about disability. They argue that disability is often seen as a weakness in AANHPI culture, which may cause students or their parents to hide the disability. While this may be true in some AANHPI families, we cannot assume that this is the primary explanation. When we buy into the culture-blaming narrative, we miss critical structural factors preventing AANHPI students from accessing the education they need, including racial discrimination and language barriers. [continue reading…]