Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: Policies to Support Employment of Individuals with Disabilities

(Employment and Training Programs)

In the United States, large disparities in economic outcomes - including employment rates, earnings, and poverty status, persist between individuals with and without disabilities. For example, in 2014, the employment rate among working age individuals with disabilities was 34 percent, less than half the employment rate among working age individuals without disabilities. Concurrently, the number of individuals reliant on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) continues to increase. This session contains three papers that provide new information on policies that could increase employment among individuals with disabilities. The study by Morris examines how changes in the U.S. disability determination process to one focused on work capacity could increase employment and decrease benefit receipt, using a comparative policy analysis framework. Paper 2 by Chatterji and Li examines the extent to which health insurance coverage facilitates employment by examining the effect of the Medicaid expansions that were part of the Affordable Care Act on SSI and SSDI rates. The study by Anand and Sevak examines the barriers and facilitators to employment reported by individuals applying for State vocational rehabilitation benefits, to identify policies and practices that could better support these individuals. While all three papers are motivated by the goal of improving policies to support individuals with disabilities in the workplace, they pose distinct questions and use different methods. Morris use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to draw implications for the U.S. from policy experiences in Europe; Chatterji and Li use quantitative methods to estimate the impact of actual policy changes in the U.S.; and Anand and Sevak’s study will identify features of supportive policies using information on individual experiences as reported in survey data.