The current study explored the extent to which college graduates with and without physical disabilities reported experiencing discrimination in their overall work histories. Resufts suggested that respondents with disabilities reported experiencing significantly more access discrimination than respondents without disabilities and that the specific type of physical disability influenced the extent of access discrimination experienced. There were no significant differences in the extent of treatment discrimination experienced by individuals with and without disabilities. The current study also explored the level of job satisfaction reported by currently employed respondents with and without physical disabilities. Results indicated that access discrimination significantly reduced current job satisfaction, and, when it was statistically controlled, individuals with disabilities reported marginally higher levels of job satisfaction than individuals without physical disabilities. These and other resufts are presented and their implications are discussed.
This study focuses on the labor market consequences of long-term disability status for persons who have had the opportunity to receive both a university education and rehabilitation services. The sample matches persons with functional limitations with a similar sample of university graduates without these limitations. Our results indicate a small salary gap that appears to be correlated with the negative opinions held by the general population about persons with these disabilities.The Rehabilitation Act of 1954 was passed to meet the vocational needs of disabled veterans. Subsequent reauthorizations of the act and the development of rehabilitation as a profession have allowed rehabilitation services to be extended to the nonveteran population. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (sections 503-504) further expanded the role of the federal government by making discrimination against persons with disabilities illegal in federally funded agencies and facilities. This antidiscrimination legislation was expanded again in 1990 in the Americans with Disabilities Act, which gives civil rights to individuals with disabilities that are similar to those provided in other legislation to individuals on the basis of race, sex, and national origin.Economists have often been critical of claims made about the value of rehabilitation services. For example, Burkhauser and Haveman (1982) note that the high estimates of returns from the programs (often as high as 20 times their costs) are open to serious criticism. They note that for lower-46 * The authors are affiliated with the University of Illinois. They would like to thank Brad Hedrick, who was instrumental in the classification of persons with disabilities by functional limitation, Vicki WesselsMurphy for research assistance, and Kevin Hallock for comments on a previous draft.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.