Postsecondary Education and Employment of Adults with Disabilities

American Rehabilitation, Winter, 1999 by Robert A. Stodden, Peter W. Dowrick

Americans with disabilities still face gaps in securing jobs, education and accessible public transportation and in many areas of daily fife. Less than 30 percent of working age adults with disabilities have even part-time employment, compared with nearly 80 percent of the general population. We propose that better access and outcomes in postsecondary education will improve not only the rates of employment for adults with disabilities but also the quality of employment. The National Center for the Study of Postsecondary Educational Support, University of Hawaii at Manoa, recently funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, will seek to identify the nature and scope of existing supports and their effectiveness, with a specific look at technology and the center will also examine the connection between outcomes and supports in postsecondary education with those in the workplace.

In 1998, the National Organization on Disability (NOD) surveyed 1,000 adults with disabilities in the United States and found that only 29 percent of adults with disabilities, ages 18-64 years, worked full- or part-time, compared with 79 percent of the nondisabled population. It also reported that 20 percent of adults with disabilities have not completed high school, in contrast to 10 percent of adults without disabilities and other findings regarding the different levels of access and success in obtaining employment, education, public transportation, and many other necessities of daily living.

The Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1992 (PL 102-569) clearly acknowledge that "disability is a natural part of the human experience and in no way diminishes the civil rights of individuals." Despite this legislation, people with disabilities continually encounter various forms of discrimination in such critical areas as postsecondary education, transportation, healthcare, and employment (Walker, 1996). It is important that we understand their present and future needs for full participation in society. This article will examine published literature on emerging strategies to enhance access to and participation in postsecondary education. Further, it will describe the development of the National Center for the Study of Postsecondary Educational Supports, University of Hawaii at Manoa, to support the outcomes for students with disabilities.

The passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 (PL 101-336), along with the recent reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Amendments of 1997 (PL 105-17), has led to an expanding social awareness of disability issues and, increasingly, to students with disabilities seeking access to colleges, universities and vocational technical programs (Benz, Doren & Yovanoff, 1998; Stodden, 1998). The number of postsecondary students reporting a disability has increased dramatically, climbing from less than 3 percent in 1978, to 9 percent in 1994, to nearly 19 percent in 1996 (Blackorby & Wagner, 1996). Since 1990, there has been a 90 percent increase in the number of postsecondary programs offering opportunities for adults with disabilities to continue their education (Pierangelo & Crane, 1997). Nonetheless, the enrollment rate of people with disabilities in postsecondary institutions is still 50 percent lower than that of the general population. This gap in educational attainment significantly and adversely affects the long-term employment prospects for people with disabilities.

Impact of Postsecondary Education on High Quality Employment

Over the past 20 years, changes in the nation's labor market have increased the importance of postsecondary education as a factor in the job market, particularly high quality employment and long-term career opportunities. Students who continue their education after high school maximize their preparedness for careers in today's changing economy as they learn the creative thinking and technical skills necessary to take advantage of current and future job market trends.

Adults with disabilities are negatively and disproportionately affected by changes in general employment trends. For example, employees with disabilities experienced a larger relative layoff in manufacturing than employees without disabilities (Yelin & Katz, 1994). Thus it appears that people with disabilities, as with other minority groups, often face labor market liabilities which place them in the position of being the last-hired and the first-fired (Trupin, Sebesta, Yelin, & LaPlante, 1997). Indeed, disability may combine with gender, age and race to place some people with disabilities at an even greater disadvantage in the job market, especially in relation to high quality employment options.

With the changing job market, access to postsecondary education becomes more critical to the pursuit of high quality employment positions. A clear, positive relationship among disability, level of education and adult employment has been firmly established in numerous studies (e.g., Benz, Doren, & Yovanoff, 1998; Blackorby & Wagner, 1996). In fact, employment rates for people with disabilities demonstrate a stronger positive correlation between level of education and rate of employment than appears in statistical trends for the general population (Stodden, 1998). In 1996, U.S. Census Bureau statistics indicated labor force participation rates at 75 percent for people without a high school diploma, 85 percent for those with a diploma, 88 percent for people with some postsecondary education, and 90 percent for those with at least 4 years of college. By contrast, only 16 percent of people with a disability and without a high school diploma currently participate in today's labor force. However, this participation doubles to 30 percent for those who have completed high school, triples to 45 percent for those with some postsecondary education and climbs to 50 percent for adults with disabilities and at least 4 years of college (Yelin & Katz, 1994).