In the last few weeks, I’ve been working with my colleague Rabbi Lynne
Landsberg, Senior Adviser for Disability Issues at the Religious Action Center,
to draw attention to a very troubling statistic: more than 70% of
people with disabilities are unemployed. This means that the
unemployment rate for people with disabilities is more than seven times the national average.
But why? This is an extremely complicated question, and not one I can
fully answer. I understand there to be a vicious cycle in which in order to
qualify for often necessary health insurance, young people with disabilities
just finishing high school must swear that they are unable to ever work. I
understand there is immense discrimination perpetrated against a community of
people often and wrongly considered burdensome and costly (the average cost of accommodations
for an employee with a disability is around $500). I understand that
too many people see only the disability and not the potential employee. I
understand that for many people with disabilities, accessible homes near
accessible transportation to accessible buildings for jobs which provide full
health benefits are all prerequisites for employment.
I’d like to add an issue to this list, one often missing
from this conversation and if better addressed possesses an enormous payoff both
for the community of people with disabilities and for the American economy:
problems and equalities in education for people with disabilities.
The Education for all Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) of
1975 first established the standard that all schools which accept federal
funding must provide equal access for children with mental and physical
handicaps. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1990
expanded upon the EAHCA and created specific standards for specific forms of
disability in thirteen categories for all children with disabilities up to age
21, and has been amended and reauthorized several times since.
But is enough being done? Are these laws adequate? Off the
top of my head, I can think of several existing gaps in services for students
with disabilities – opportunities for higher education, assistance for students
or young people over 21 who have had special education suddenly removed,
services for students with poorly-understood or unusual disabilities and needs,
etc. These laws are not enough, we need to be addressing these gaps and
assisting all Americans, including those with disabilities, to become fully
educated and use that education to find employment and contribute to the
economy.
One of the best tools we could soon have for improving
educational opportunities for students with disabilities is the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
This convention, signed by the United States last July but still not ratified,
would set high standards for special education and accommodations for students
with disabilities. It would make some of these standards obligatory for all
public schools, not only those which accept federal funding and require annual
accountability and status reports. Furthermore, it would seek to change
attitudes about disabilities by improving education for all students, not just
those with disabilities – a long term amelioration of the discrimination people
with disabilities experience when seeking employment.
The process of ratifying a treaty is a long and difficult
one (some spend years being checked out by the State Department before being
sent to the Senate for a vote), but in this case, when educational iniquities
contribute to hyper-unemployment among the community of people with
disabilities, it is more than necessary. Canada and 78 other nations have done
so already. Though not yet ready for a vote, the UNCRPD could be released from
State at any time.
For more information, visit www.ratifynow.org or contact me at [email protected].