We first decided to focus a CloseUp on the topic of disability and employment(http://www.issuelab.org/tag/disability_and_employment)
when news of mass layoffs became unavoidable. We had to ask ourselves, if it’s difficult for millions of able-bodied Americans to find and keep employment,
what is the situation like for people with disabilities (PWD)?

As reported by Cornell University’s Employment and Disability Institute, the 2008 population survey showed that only 17.6% of men and women who have a condition
that limits their ability to work are in fact employed
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/edi/disabilitystatistics/.
With proven discrimination against job seekers with disabilities and an increasingly competitive labor market we can imagine that the situation will only
get tougher for people with disabilities.

Some of the issues faced by this group, and addressed by the
research in this collection,
include:

•  Youth with disabilities transitioning from school into the workplace
•  The effectiveness of one-stop centers and other government support systems
•  The advantages and challenges for businesses employing PWD
•  Strategies and tactics for employers to accommodate PWD
•  The long term impact of un and under-employment on health and retirement benefits for PWD
•  The adequacy of workers’ compensation and disability prevention and prevalence of late-career disability

Like a lot of other research on important social issues, this work was widely scattered and required a bit of digging to unearth. Based on the number of
resource lists and related links pages we found, service providers, community groups, advocates, and family members of people with disabilities are clearly
looking for solid information to inform their direct service work, advocacy, and policy interventions.

We are pleased to bring this research into one easy-to-access collection for those people who are already immersed in the topic, as well as those of us who are pretty unfamiliar with this issue. We hope the collection is useful to both of these audiences, and everyone in between. It certainly has changed the way that we hear the most recent unemployment numbers.

We encourage you to take a closer look at research in this special collection on disability and employment, including:

• 2008 flexAbility Toolkit (http://www.issuelab.org/research/2008_flexability_toolkit
• Barriers to and Supports for Work Among Adults with Disabilities: Results from the NHIS-D (http://www.issuelab.org/research/barriers_to_and_supports_for_work_among_adults_with_disabilities_results_from_the_nhis_d)
• Blind Adults in America: Their Lives and Challenges (http://www.issuelab.org/research/blind_adults_in_america_their_lives_and_challenges)
• Four Strategies to Overcome Barriers to Employment: An Introduction to the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project (http://www.issuelab.org/research/four_strategies_to_overcome_barriers_to_employment_an_introduction_to_the_enhanced_services_for_the_hard_to_employ_demonstration_and_evaluation_project)
• How Do Disabilities Affect Future Retirement Benefits? (http://www.issuelab.org/research/how_do_disabilities_affect_future_retirement_benefits
• How The One-Stop System Serves People with Disabilities: A Nationwide Survey of Disability Agencies (http://www.issuelab.org/research/how_the_one_stop_system_serves_people_with_disabilities_a_nationwide_survey_of_disability_agencies)
• The Impacts of Transitional Employment for Mentally Retarded Young Adults: Results of the STETS Demonstration (http://www.issuelab.org/research/impacts_of_transitional_employment_for_mentally_retarded_young_adults_results_of_the_stets_demonstration)
• Is Compensation for Workplace Injuries Adequate? (http://www.issuelab.org/research/is_compensation_for_workplace_injuries_adequate)
• Oregon Business Case for Inclusion of People With Disabilities in the Competitive Workplace and Consumer Base (http://www.issuelab.org/research/oregon_business_case_for_inclusion_of_people_with_disabilities_in_the_competitive_workplace_and_consumer_base)
• Real Trends or Measurement Problems? Disability and Employment Trends from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (http://www.issuelab.org/research/real_trends_or_measurement_problems_disability_and_employment_trends_from_the_survey_of_income_and_program_participation)
• The Returns to Education and Basic Skills Training for Individuals with Poor Health or Disability (http://www.issuelab.org/research/returns_to_education_and_basic_skills_training_for_individuals_with_poor_health_or_disability)
• Toward the Accessible Workplace: Strategies for Competitive Employment-People with Disabilities (http://www.issuelab.org/research/toward_the_accessible_workplace_strategies_for_competitive_employment_people_with_disabilities)

Reproduced from http://www.issuelab.org/closeup/Feb_2009