Economic Justice

The newspaper claimed that “as many as one-third of working-age adults” in rural communities receive disability benefits. But as the Center for American Progress calculated ― and The Huffington Post confirmed by looking at the raw data ― that proportion holds true in only one county in the entire country.

Not too long ago, Kerry Magro released a list called “100 People with Autism You Should Know,” with the intent of introducing autistic people and their allies to a variety of autistic advocates. Unfortunately, Magro’s list doesn’t really reflect the autistic community. Magro’s list contributes to the idea that autistic people are predominantly white men who don’t view their disability as political. This alternative list is an effort to reflect the diversity of the autistic community. I wanted to highlight fierce advocates for civil rights and inclusion that reject the idea that we must comply in order to be acceptable. You can find these trailblazing autistic activists on personal blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube and other social media.

Lawmakers who dream of gutting the Affordable Care Act (ACA) do not seem to care about its importance to small business owners, particularly those who are solo entrepreneurs. What these politicians fail to understand is that the health care law is the first meaningful insurance reform available to entrepreneurs in decades. In fact, for many self-employed business owners, their firms would not exist without it. That’s why repealing the law is going to be a sizable setback for entrepreneurship.

One of the most popular and best-known provisions of the ACA has been particularly important to solo entrepreneurs: the prohibition against denying coverage to anyone because they have a pre-existing condition. Before the ACA, many aspiring entrepreneurs were unable to leave their jobs and start new ventures because a pre-existing condition meant they could not get coverage on their own, so they were stuck working for someone else. Others simply went without insurance. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 30 percent of the nation’s 22 million self-employed were uninsured in 2011 — a rate more than double that of the general population.

The ACA has been (and should continue to be) particularly impactful for entrepreneurs. A report issued recently by the Treasury Department and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that one out of every five ACA marketplace enrollees in 2014 was a small business owner, self-employed, or both. Two years later, the numbers continued to improve: a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation in early 2016 found that 31 percent of non-group health insurance enrollees were self-employed. What’s more, in 2013, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation estimated that the number of self-employed Americans would increase by 1.5 million, thanks to the ACA.

• Wyoming leads nation with 57.1 percent of their working-age citizens with disabilities employed.
• Pennsylvanians with disabilities experience the biggest jobs gains of any state in the nation with 13,763 more people with disabilities entering the workforce.
• Wisconsin edges Nevada out of the top 10 states after investing in school-to-work transition programs for youth with disabilities.

Washington, D.C., Feb. 24 – As governors convene in Washington, D.C., for the 2017 National Governors Association Winter Meeting, Americans with disabilities are finding their economic outcomes vary greatly based on where they live. For example, 57.1 percent of working-age people with disabilities in Wyoming have jobs, while only 24.4 percent of people with disabilities in West Virginia are employed.

According to the newly released 2016 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium, only 34.9 percent of U.S. civilians with disabilities ages 18-64 living in the community nationally had a job in 2015, compared to 76.0 percent for people without disabilities. Out of almost 20 million working age people with disabilities, only 7.1 million people with disabilities have a job. Millions who would rather be working are living on government benefits instead.

However, looking at national statistics only tells part of the story facing millions of job seekers with disabilities who want to become independent and earn an income. Digging into the data compiled by the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Statistics and Demographics (StatsRRTC) actually shows serious differences in employment outcomes at the state level. In fact, there are some states where people with disabilities are twice as likely to be employed as in other states.

Wyoming leads the nation with 57.1 percent of their citizens with disabilities employed. Wyoming is followed by the Dakotas where 51.7 percent of South Dakotans with disabilities have a job and 48.6 percent of North Dakotans with disabilities are employed. Other top 10 states include Nebraska with a 48.6 employment rate for people with disabilities, Minnesota (47.5), Iowa (46.3), Utah (45.8), Kansas (42.8), Alaska (42.6) and Wisconsin (41.2).

Minnesota under Gov. Mark Dayton, saw the biggest job gains for people with disabilities out of the top 10 states, with 12,652 Minnesotans with disabilities entering the workforce between 2014 and 2015.

Looking back at RespectAbility’s 2016 report on the best and worst states for workers with disabilities, Hawaii, Colorado and Nevada have since dropped out of the top 10 states. In fact, the number 10 spot has been claimed by Wisconsin, up from number 16 in 2016 and edging out Nevada by 0.1 percent.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker consistently has championed the issue of jobs for people with disabilities both in his past State of the State Addresses and in public appearances throughout the state. In particular, Walker consistently has worked hard to expand the number of highly successful Project Search sites in his state, providing youth with intellectual and development disabilities opportunities to successfully transition from school to work.

Building Your Inclusive Workplace

Disability Impacts all of us.

• Communities
• Livelihood
• Health

A snapshot of disability in the United States.

• 22 percent of adults in the United States have some type of disability.
• The percentage of people living with select disabilities in each state is highest in the Southeast.

Percentage of adults with select functional disability types*:

• 13 percent of people with a disability have a mobility disability with serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs.
• 10.6 percent of people with a disability have a cognition disability with serious difficulty concentrating, remembering or making decisions.
• 6.5 percent of people with a disability have an independent living disability with difficulty doing errands alone such as visiting a doctor’s office or shopping.
• 4.6 percent of people with a disability have a vision disability with blindness or serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses.
• 3.6 percent of people with a disability have a self-care disability with difficulty dressing or bathing.

 

* This data source does not assess deafness or serious difficulty hearing. Therefore state-level data on the number of people who have hearing difficulties was not collected and results in a likely underestimate in total number of people with disabilities in the U.S.

Brought to you by the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. The Division of Human Development and Disability.

Michigan’s MiABLE disability savings program launched on Nov. 1, 2016, giving Michiganders with disabilities (and their families) the opportunity to save for the future without risking any disability benefits.

It’s only been a few months, but nearly 450 accounts have been created and the amount invested just crossed the $1 million threshold. This is great news because this ABLE accounts promote self-sufficiency and provide families with options many have never had before. In the past, people with disabilities had to make a choice between saving for the future and keeping their disability benefits. This unfortunate choice kept too many people from living independent, self-determined lives.

For more information or to sign up for the MiABLE program, visit miABLE.org

The gig economy is growing and here to stay, yet the future of one key labor policy that supports it is uncertain: The Affordable Care Act (ACA), otherwise known as Obamacare.

The ACA is critical to the continued growth of the gig economy because it separates the ability to obtain health insurance from the need to hold a traditional full-time job. It gives all independent workers — consultants, contractors, freelancers, part-time, and on-demand workers — a way to obtain health insurance coverage without relying on an employer. Today, 20%–40% of the workforce works independently, and that share is only projected to grow.

The repeal of the ACA without a comparable replacement will bring America back to the days when obtaining health insurance essentially meant working in a traditional job for a single employer and employees were reluctant to strike out on their own for fear of losing their insurance. Independent workers would be left with the limited health insurance options they faced years ago: either buying a costly private health plan that doesn’t cover preexisting conditions, includes caps on maximum benefits payouts, and could even be rescinded after an enrollee becomes sick, or searching for increasingly scarce jobs from companies that are more and more reluctant to hire full-time employees.

Requiring workers to hold a full-time job in order to obtain health insurance makes little sense in today’s dynamic economy. Companies are born, fail, merge, and conduct layoffs and downsizings too regularly and too frequently to be relied on for the steady, continuous provision of important employee benefits. The median tenure in a job is now between three and five years for a mid-career employee, and even lower for those just starting their working lives. The need for accessible, portable health insurance has never been higher.

Starting a business can be a great opportunity for many people with disabilities. In addition to meeting career aspirations and goals, owning your own business can provide benefits such as work flexibility and financial stability. This page offers resources to help disabled people start, grow and manage a small business.

For hiring, recruiting and accommodation requirements, visit Hiring People with Disabilities.

Starting a Business

• Entrepreneur Resources for People with Disabilities
  Details important considerations for potential entrepreneurs with disabilities.

• Important Considerations for Entrepreneurs with Disabilities
  Outlines important considerations for potential entrepreneurs with disabilities.

• Online Seminar: Self-Employment for Individuals with Disabilities
  Introduces some of the critical factors in considering business feasibility, developing financial resources, basic business plan development and the identification and access to community small business resources for disabled persons.

• Small Business and Self-Employment Service
  Provides access to information such as the pros and cons of starting a business as a disabled person, counseling, and referrals regarding self-employment and small business ownership opportunities for people with disabilities.

• START-UP USA
  Contains self-employment information and resources for individuals with disabilities.

• State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies
  Lists programs that help people with disabilities become employed, including self-employment.

• Ticket to Work Program
  Connects Social Security Disability Insurance and supplemental security income beneficiaries with employment networks for training and other support services needed to achieve your employment goals, including self-employment.

Monday’s edition of the Federal Register contains a new rule from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to increase the number of federal workers who have disabilities, a proposal from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to update its open-records regulations, and more time from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to comment on a new rule for certain chemical substances.

Here's what to look for:

Disabled workers: The EEOC is finalizing a rule that will require federal agencies to enact hiring policies that favor individuals with disabilities.

The agency said the final rule clarifies the affirmative action obligation under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Under the rule, agencies are required to take specific steps to gradually increase the number of employees who have a disability or targeted disability, which include deafness, blindness, partial or complete paralysis, convulsive disorder, mental illness, and missing extremity.

The rule also requires agencies to provide personal assistance services to employees who, because of a targeted disability, require such assistance in order to be at work or participate in work-related travel.

These personal services help individuals with disabilities perform the activities of daily living, including assistance with removing and putting on clothes, eating, and using the restroom, the EEOC said in its rulemaking.

The regulation, which will take effect in 60 days, does not apply to the private sector or to state or local governments.