Exploration of VR Acceptance and Ethnicity

Abstract

The reported study examined whether African Americans, European Americans, Native Americans/Alaskan Natives, and Asians/Pacific Islanders with disabilities would differ in their rates of vocational rehabilitation (VR) acceptance in the United Sates. The test statistic revealed that a significant difference existed regarding ethnicity and VR acceptance. Moreover, a small but significant association emerged between ethnicity and VR acceptance (Cramer's V = .023). The results revealed that in the United States, European Americans are more likely to be accepted for VR services than are African Americans. The author discusses possible barriers to VR acceptance for underserved and underrepresented groups in the United States.

Working with immigrant families raising a child with a disability: challenges and recommendations for healthcare and community service providers

“…Similar evidence shows that being a member of an ethnic minority group often influences access to and type of rehabilitation services that are provided [49]. For example, research indicates that patients from an ethnic minority background who have limited English proficiency are often misdiagnosed and incorrectly treated within the healthcare system [16,47,50].…”

“…Focusing on providing appropriate culturally sensitive care is important because members of ethnic minority groups are more likely than Caucasian clients to have poorer rehabilitation outcomes [3,[47][48][49]. Similar evidence shows that being a member of an ethnic minority group often influences access to and type of rehabilitation services that are provided [49].…”

More Likely to Be Poor Whatever the Measure: Working‐Age Persons with Disabilities in the United States*

“…Working-age people with disabilities have significantly lower rates of employment than working-age people without disabilities (Houtenville and Ruiz, 2012). The reasons behind these differences are numerous (Burkhauser and Daly, 2011;She and Livermore, 2007), ranging from the degree of disability, to discrimination based on disability or other personal characteristics (Bennett, 2009;Bjelland et al, 2009;Carter, Austin, and Trainor, 2012;Featherstone, 2009;Meade et al, 2004;O'Hara, 2004;Stapleton and Erickson, 2004;Wilson, 2002), to the lack of appropriate support infrastructures to make jobs accessible to people with disabilities (Blank et al, 2008;Ownsworth and McKenna, 2004). The relatively high nonemployment among persons with severe disabilities may lead to more limited economic resources.…”

Predicting employment outcomes among women of color with psychiatric disabilities

“…For the purposes of this study, women of color refer to African American women and "Latinas, Asian American, and American Indian women" [2]. Specifically, studies suggest employment barriers for women in general [4,11,14], women with psychiatric disabilities [12,13,32], women of color [2,7,43], women who receive TANF [6], and women in the state and federal vocational rehabilitation (VR) system [11,14]. Of particular interest are the employment barriers of women of color with psychiatric disabilities who receive TANF.…”