National Disability Employment in North America

by Publisher, eResumes4Vips
(Texas, USA)

I Have a Disability

National Disability Employment in North America

While researching a personal disability issue that I was facing in my workplace, I discovered some rather interesting statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau.

In the United States (U.S.) alone, there are over 54 Million persons that have a recognized disability. Of that, 12.3% are women; that statistic is comparative to a 11.6% for adult males.

The state of West Virginia has the highest percentage of people with a disability. The (staggering) figure is 18.8% of West Virginians comprise the total number of U.S. disabled persons.

Surprisingly, the state of Utah has the lowest percentage of people with a disability; their proportion is 8.9% of the U.S. Disabled population.

Mental, Visual and Auditory Disability

Visual difficulties account for 6.5 million persons. This is a large segment of the U.S. population. yet this pales in comparison to the auditory and mental difficulties experienced by an even larger proportion of persons in America.

Difficulty of hearing is experienced by 10.2 million people; of which, 5.8 million of these are 65 years of age or older. Furthermore, 13.5 million people have trouble concentrating or making decisions (cognitive impairment).

While mental and/or cognitive impairment typically befalls the elderly, the youth are not immune to these statistical maladies. Fully 2.1 million young persons, ranging in ages 5-17, have a recognized diagnostic mental and/or cognitive impairment.

Veterans, The Impoverished, and The Unemployable

Within the year 2008 alone, our Nation's Military Veterans (honorably discharged after serving 180 days or more) received $35.3 billion of compensation for service-connected disabilities. Again, that was just for the year 2008.

Around 21% of the population, ages 16 and older with a disability, are living below the poverty level. Lastly (but certainly not least), nearly 72% of disabled persons, ages 16 and older, are either unemployable or are not members of the workforce (for one reason or another).