Novel Approaches to Supporting Employment for Individuals with Disabilities

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Individuals with disabilities face barriers to employment, including limited access to services, fragmented support systems, and challenges in sustaining long-term labor market attachment. While a range of policies and programs aim to address these barriers—from employment coaching and vocational services to post-secondary education and disability benefit reforms—evidence on which approaches are most effective, for whom, and over what time horizon remains limited. In particular, there is a need for research that examines diverse intervention strategies, incorporates multiple data sources, and considers both short- and long-term outcomes.

This panel brings together four papers that examine novel approaches to improving employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities across different populations, program models, and stages of the life course. Using survey, administrative, and qualitative data, the papers provide complementary evidence on how services, education pathways, and policy interventions shape employment, earnings, and program participation. The first paper presents short-term impact findings from the federally sponsored Next Generation of Enhanced Employment Strategies (NextGen) Project’s randomized controlled trial of Bridges from School to Work, an employment intervention aiming to help young adults ages 17–24 in special education find and maintain competitive employment around the time they transition from school to the workforce.  The second paper examines employment strategies for autistic adults using interviews and survey data, identifying promising approaches and highlighting how supports can be better tailored, particularly for individuals with co-occurring mental health conditions.  The third paper uses administrative data to analyze how one’s field of study influences educational attainment and workforce outcomes for post-secondary students with disabilities, offering new insights into how education pathways shape labor market success. The fourth paper examines long-term outcomes from the Promoting the Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income (PROMISE) demonstration, another federally funded project, providing evidence on whether early intervention services for minors receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) produce longer-term impacts on employment, earnings, and reliance on disability benefits into adulthood.

Together, these papers are especially important for understanding potentially effective approaches to reducing the persistent employment gap for people with disabilities, especially those who are entering the workforce. Effective interventions, especially at younger ages, have the potential to lead to sustained increases in employment and earnings across the life course, promoting economic security for more individuals with disabilities (Schutz and Carter, 2022).

Policy Area

• Employment and Training Programs

Chair

• Jody Schimmel Hyde, University of Michigan Ann Arbor

Discussants

• J. Michael C Collins, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Hyun Ju Kim, University of New Hampshire

Organizer

• Jody Schimmel Hyde, University of Michigan Ann Arbor

Individual Presentations

• Supporting Young Adults in Special Education as They Enter the Labor Market - Presenting Author: April Yanyuan Wu, Mathematica

• Lessons for Policy and Practice from Diverse Approaches to Autistic Employment - Presenting Author: Ian Moura, Brandeis University; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Jennifer Wicks, Brandeis University; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Spenser Wright, University of Colorado Denver; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Joanne Nicholson, Brandeis University

• From Classroom to Career: Field of Study and Workforce Outcomes for Post-Secondary Students with Disabilities - Presenting Author: Ahana Samat, University of Texas, Dallas

• Long-term follow-up of participants in the PROMISE Demonstration - Presenting Author: Ankita Patnaik, Mathematica