Originally published here.

Do non-employed people with disabilities want to work,and if so, what types of jobs do they want? Despite passageof the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) andother policy initiatives designed to improve employmentopportunities for people with disabilities, their employmentrates remain low [1–3]. One recent estimate is that only40% of the 18 million working-age people with disabilitiesare employed, which is half the 80% rate for peoplewithout disabilities [4]. Their low employment rates con-tribute to high rates of poverty [5–7]. Employment isimportant not only for increasing economic resources butalso for its social and psychological effects, since it helps incorporate people with disabilities fully into mainstreamsociety by increasing their social networks, civic skills,independence, citizenship behaviors, and sense of efficacyand inclusion from filling a valued social role [8].

Among the possible reasons for the low employment rates of people with disabilities, researchers have identified skill gaps and employment disincentives from disability income, particularly Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), ascontributing factors [2, 9]. In addition, employer attitudesand unwelcome corporate cultures reflecting stigma andprejudice against disability may constrain their employmentopportunities [10–12]. The attitudes of non-employedpeople with disabilities regarding work and employers,however, have received relatively little attention.

If non-employed people with disabilities are reluctant to work or have unrealistic expectations about potential jobs, thismay contribute to their low employment levels. If, however,their attitudes and expectations are similar to those of non-disabled people, then other factors appear to be primarilyresponsible for their low employment levels.While some recent studies explore the attitudes andexperiences of employed people with disabilities [3, 13], weare aware of no existing studies of the work-related attitudesof non-employed people with disabilities. One commonly-cited statistic is that 63% of non-employed people withdisabilities would prefer to be working [14], although we donot have comparisons of this figure between people withand without disabilities. In this investigation we use thenationally-representative General Social Survey (GSS) toprovide recent data on the desire for jobs, and the impor-tance of several job characteristics, among non-employedpeople with disabilities in the US. We make comparisonsbetween people with and without disabilities, and amongpeople with different types of impairments.

While people with disabilities are as likely as thosewithout disabilities to express the desire for a job, they areless likely to be actively looking for a job, apparently dueto less optimism about finding a suitable job. This loweroptimism may reflect the very real recognition that one’simpairments often constrict productivity in a number of  jobs so that fewer suitable jobs are available, particularly if one has low education and training levels. Importantly, thelower optimism may also reflect perceptions that employerattitudes or culture—including prejudice, discrimination,and reluctance to make workplace accommodations—oftendecrease the chances of a job offer, promotion, or suc-cessful retention [13].

While it is clear that the disabilityincome system plays a strong role in the employmenttrends for people with disabilities [9, 40], in this sample wefind the same pattern of preferences for a job and optimismover finding one even when restricting the sample to peoplewho do not receive disability, pension, or welfare income.The finding that job preferences are similar betweenpeople with and without disabilities is somewhat surpris-ing, given that flexibility in the hours or days that oneworks may be of special benefit to many people with dis-abilities. It is consistent with evidence that people withdisabilities are no more or less likely to have flexible work schedules [16]. A concern for flexibility may nonethelessbe expressed in their greater likelihood of taking part-timeand temporary jobs [15], since these jobs require fewerfixed time commitments so that more time is preserved todeal with expected and unexpected health and mobility issues. The low income levels of people with disabilitiesand their higher likelihood of living alone may also beexpected to make them more interested in high income and job security, but the present results indicate they are nomore money-focused or risk averse than workers in gen-eral.

The answer to the question posed by the title—’’What types of jobs do with disabilities want?’’—therefore seemsto be ‘‘The same as everyone else.’’How realistic are their desires for jobs? An examinationof US Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational projectionsover the 2008–2018 period, matched to data on occupa-tional ability requirements, shows that a large share of new jobs can be performed by people with disabilities [41]. If people with disabilities both want to work and are able toperform many of the available jobs, what keeps them fromworking? And, note the answer to this question may beparticularly telling, given the data used in this investigationwere gathered in 2006, during a period of continued eco-nomic growth shortly before the economic recession beganin 2008, which has dramatically raised the unemploymentrates for persons with and without disabilities.

The low employment rate can be traced to factors onboth the supply and demand sides of the labor market. Onthe supply side, some people with disabilities are limitedby health issues, transportation barriers, disincentives fromdisability income programs, and lower average levels of education and training [42]. Barriers also exist on thedemand side: employer uncertainty and lack of informa-tion, concerns about accommodations, unwelcoming cor-porate cultures, and lingering prejudice and discriminationthat the ADA and its Amendment Act are designed tocombat [42].Some of these barriers can be addressed by research thatfocuses on how negative misperceptions about people withdisabilitiescanbechanged.Case studiesofcompaniesusingmultiple methods (surveys, in-depth interviews, and focusgroups) can help identify the effect of corporate policies andattitudes on the employment opportunities and experiencesof people with disabilities, and the effectiveness of best practices.

Employers often have misplaced concerns aboutthe costs of accommodations and fail to recognize thepotential benefits; recent research has found that accom-modations can not only decrease employee turnover andincrease employee productivity and commitment, but canalso have positive spillover effects on the attitudes of co-workers [43]. Research in this area should be widelydisseminated in popular and practitioner outlets foremployers, HR professionals, service providers, and dis-abilityorganizations.Inaddition,employersshouldbemademore aware of the Job Accommodations Network (funded by the U.S. Office ofDisability Employment Policy) and theregional Disability and Business Technical AssistanceCenters (funded by the National Institute of Disability andRehabilitation Research) which play a valuable role inproviding information and technical assistance to helpaddress disability issues.Continued efforts to combat low employment rates andbarriers are valuable from a variety of perspectives, andhave led to a number of policies, proposals, and demon-stration projects such as the Ticket to Work and theMedicaid Buy-In programs [42, 44]. For people with dis-abilities, employment has not just economic value, butimportant social, civic, and psychological value as well [8,45]. For employers, who today face an unprecedentedchallenging and competitive economic and global envi-ronment, people with disabilities remain an underutilizedlabor pool that can and must help fill expected laborshortages over the next two decades as baby boomersretire. Moreover, present labor demographics and eco-nomic realities will require more people to remain workingat older ages, so that there will be increased attention todisabilities resulting from work and aging. These combinedtrends, which are likely to last a generation, require newand innovative strategies to hire, promote, and retainqualified and motivated workers with and withoutdisabilities.

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