By Jenifer Simpson, Senior Director of Government Affairs, AAPD:
NOD Harris Poll: Significant Gaps for People with Disabilities in Employment, Technology, other Key Indicators, Little Good News
On July 22, 2010, AAPD attended an event on Capitol Hill held by the National Organization on Disability (NOD) where it released findings from a May-June 2010 survey comparing people with and without disabilities on thirteen key indicators. The survey, “The 2010 Kessler/NOD Survey of Americans with Disabilities,” reports that the largest gap is in employment with only 21% of working-age people with disabilities reporting full or part-time employment, compared to 59% of people without disabilities -- a gap of 38 percentage points. NOD asserts that while this gap has decreased since first examined in 1998, it remains large and decline is slow. The second largest gap between people with and without disabilities is regarding using technology to access the Internet. People with disabilities are much less likely to use the Internet and this gap exists across all age groups. The report notes:
85% of adults without disabilities claim to use a computer or other electronic device to access the Internet from home, work or another location, whereas only 54% of adults with disabilities report the same – a gap of 31 percentage points. The gap is smallest among the youngest cohort but a difference still exists (10 percentage points). The gap increases threefold among those 65 or older to 33 percentage points.
Other findings revealed that people with disabilities are still much more likely to live in poverty, less likely than those without disabilities to socialize with friends, relatives or neighbors, or perceived that the ADA had not been helpful for them. Amongst these stark results, two findings indicated some good news: the gap is narrowing for people with disabilities receiving high school diplomas as compared to people with disabilities, and there was no gap found – the first time ever in the history of NOD/Harris gap polls for people with disabilities -- on the measure of ‘political participation,’ a survey question that asked respondents if they voted in the last national election.
The event was kicked off by NOD Chairman, Tom Ridge, former Governor of Pennsylvania and the First Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and by Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) who said the numbers were a “call to action” particularly in regard to job opportunity, transportation and housing. Humphrey Taylor, Chairman of The Harris Poll and member of the NOD board stated the numbers indicate that “an enormous amount of work needs to be done.” Rodger DeRose, CEO of the Kessler Foundation said a second report, on Employment, would be released later this year, in October.
The statistics release was well-attended also by some disability advocates, including Yoshiko Dart, as well as representatives from federal agencies such as FEMA, DOT, SSA and the State Department, and companies such as AT&T and WalMart.
Read NOD Press Release at http://www.2010disabilitysurveys.org/pdfs/KesslerNODADApressrelease.pdf
Read Survey Report at http://www.2010disabilitysurveys.org/pdfs/surveyresults.pdf
View Powerpoint (colorful graphs, gloomy numbers) from Harris Interactive Poll presentation at http://www.2010disabilitysurveys.org/presentation.html
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