With the aid of computer assistive technology, persons with disabilities can access careers with competitive wages and achieve personal, academic, vocational and financial independence. By comparison, the teen market, heavily catered to by businesses, controls $140 billion in spending power according to a 1998 estimate by Teenage Research Unlimited.Ĭomputer skills are the gateway to an education, careers with competitive wages and long term growth. People with disabilities have a combined income of more than $1 trillion, with $220 billion in discretionary income. Consumers with disabilities represent an enormous market niche and employees with disabilities can help companies develop strategies to tap this valuable market.Companies such as Walgreen’s, Home Depot, Marriott and Pizza Hut report that absentee rates are actually lower among their disabled workforce and Marriot experienced a 6% turnover rate among people with disabilities, vs.But…hiring persons with disabilities is good business!
A disability can be acquired at any time in life, but youth and adults with disabilities are more likely to live in poverty and be dependent upon public assistance programs than their peers or any other minority group.
DO MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS FLY FREE FULL
Nearly one third of the workforce with disabilities earn an income below the poverty level and among those who work full-time, only 46% say that their work requires them to use their full talents or abilities. The assumption is they cannot or do not wish to work, BUT research shows that two out of three unemployed people with disabilities want and need to work! For those who work, the challenge is to be treated equally. Nearly one in five Americans has a disability and sadly, for all of us, less than half of these individuals are gainfully employed. Since 1997, Expandability has served over 14,000 youth and adults with disabilities through direct services. In partnership with local schools, government agencies, and businesses, we provide individualized assessments, career and job placement assistance, adaptive technology, and more. Expandability assists individuals 15 years of age or older who have any type of disability and who can achieve competitive employment.Įxpandability, a Bay Area nonprofit organization, helps youth and adults with disabilities to achieve their goals. A disability is defined as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life functions and can be obvious (such as a physical or sensory disability) or non-apparent (such as a psychiatric, medical or learning disability).