Truman Scholarship Candidate :: essays research papers

The 1990 Americans with Disabilities comprise ("ADA") has proven unsuccessful in its goal of empowering people with disabilities to reach the workforce. Although 19.4% of the population have some disability,1 they constitute only 4.3% of the workforce.2 The groups un mesh rate stands at al almost 17%, nearly three times the national average.3 A survey for the National Organization on Disabilities found that current levels of employment of people with disabilities between the ages of 16 and 64 have actually dropped two percentage points since 1986, four years before the civil rights legislation was passed.4 The companionable protection Administration has additionally reported a decline since 1990 in the percentage of alter Americans who are working while receiving Supplemental Security Income ("SSI").5Several factors account for these gamy levels of unemployment. Health policy is perhaps the most significant. Disabled people receiving SSI or Social Security Dis ability Income ("SSDI") retreat their federal health insurance if they earn more than $500 per calendar month in income for nine months, a powerful incentive not to work.6 In turn, employers are wary of hiring people with disabilities for fear of driving up insurance premiums for their businesses.Secondly, a further disincentive to work exists in wages, where recipients of SSI or SSDI frequently earn more by not working. This is particularly true among the heavily disabled, where most work available will pay only slightly more than minimum wage.7Thirdly, ADA has yet to be properly enforced. octonary federal agencies are currently involved in the investigation of varied cathexiss,8 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") lags ten months in its investigations of complaints.9 A visually impaired job hunter wrote in the New York quantify that when he tried to file a complaint with EEOC, "I was told that my complaint would be kept on record an d if a number of much(prenominal) complaints for the same employer accumulated, action would be taken."10An additional factor in the high levels of unemployment among people with disabilities is businesss lack of knowledge somewhat ADA and the damage of run across its provisions. Most disabled workers do not need any fussy accommodations,11 and only 22% of accommodations cost more than $1000. Sixty-seven percent of accommodations cost $500 or less.12 Furthermore, making new construction fully come-at-able increases costs by no more than one percent.13Finally, employer prejudice and stereotypes about the disabled affect their employment. Myths persist that those with disabilities have lower attendance range and safety records and are less capable of performing their jobs than their nondisabled counterparts, although studies have shown that disabled employees achieve similar levels of excellence in each of these categories.