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The Disability Employment Gap: New Evidence from Investigations of Barriers and Interventions

Friday, November 14, 1:45 to 3:15pm, Property: Hyatt Regency Seattle, Floor: 7th Floor, Room: 705 - Palouse

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

People with disabilities face persistent barriers to employment despite decades of policy intervention. The employment rate for people with disabilities remains significantly lower than for those without disabilities, with concerning implications for economic security, social inclusion, and well-being. This panel brings together three papers using varied methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks that examine different aspects of disability employment policy and its limitations; from individual-level characteristics and availability of support services that could increase likelihood of return to work, to experiences of and barriers to accessing workplace accommodations, to macro-level economic policy and its impact on hiring of disabled workers.


In the first paper, Patnaik et al., present findings from the RETAIN demonstration, a joint Department of Labor and Social Security Administration initiative designed to help workers with recent injuries or illnesses remain in the workforce. They present findings on the effects of the RETAIN early intervention services on participants’ labor market outcomes and application rates for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) 12 months after enrollment in the demonstration.  They also leverage control group baseline data to develop a predictive model to identify which study enrollees are more and less likely to return to work absent RETAIN program support services.
In the second paper, Borus uses qualitative methods to explore how disabled workers navigate the accommodation processes enshrined in the Americans with Disabilities Act. Through analysis of 40 in-depth interviews with 40 disabled individuals in Chicago, he finds that disabled workers must carry out significant additional labor including learning about their ADA rights, navigating disability disclosure, and managing delicate relationships with supervisors. Borus’s qualitative work illuminates ways in which disabled people continue to struggle to access employment despite policy intervention as his findings suggest that disabled workers experience the workplace accommodations process as precarious and uncertain.


In the third paper, Forbes complicates long standing economic theory on market forces and discrimination in his investigation of how market competition affects employers' willingness to hire disabled workers. He uses banking deregulation in the late 20th century to test whether the subsequent increase in competition reduces or exacerbates disability-based discrimination in employment. The findings have implications for additional policy intervention as support for increases in market competition could warrant a requisite increase in protections for disabled workers.

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