Study Finds the Existence of Poverty Gap Between Fit People and Disabled

According to a new report, there still exists a dramatic employment and poverty gap between working-age people with disabilities and those without them.

The Third Annual Disability Status Report revealed that almost 38 percent of people with disabilities were employed, compared with almost 80 percent of people without disabilities.

The report also revealed that there were 22.3 million people with disabilities of working age 21-64 years, which is 13 percent of the total working-age population.

The researchers also found that Americans with disabilities were more than twice as likely to live in poverty, 25.4 percent of working-age Americans with disabilities live in poverty compared with 9.5 percent of those without disabilities.

People with disabilities constitute 28 percent of the working-age American population living in poverty.

"The employment gap for people with disabilities is long-standing," said Andrew Houtenville, director of Cornell's Rehabilitation Research and Training Centre on Disability Demographics and Statistics (StatsRRTC).

"We hope they will become an annual event that policy-makers, advocates, the media and people with disabilities across the United States will anticipate and depend on,” Houtenville said.

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The Disability Status Report was presented on Nov. 7 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., by Cornell researchers in collaboration with the American Association of People with Disabilities.

Source-ANI
SRM/S