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INTERSECTIONALITY: DISABILITY & SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS
A THREAD
A THREAD
“If you have a disability in the US, you're TWICE as likely to be poor as someone without a disability.”*
*Source: NPR
*Source: NPR
Intersectionality among socioeconomic status & disability acknowledges that disability comes in different forms & experiences but systemic barriers (educational, workplace, healthcare, & policy discrimination) have created an undeniable correlation between disability & poverty.
As of 2019, only 19.3% of disabled people were employed in the US. This statistic is starkly low, especially when compared to the 66.3% employment rate of able-bodied people.*
*Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics
*Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics
Although a number of disabled people are unemployed because they weren’t given the educational accommodations necessary for disabled students to thrive, less than half of the US states are actually in compliance with federal special education law during the 2019-2020 school year—
—or because are simply not able to work, discrimination also contributes to the lack of disabled people in the workforce.*
*Source: US Department of Education’s 2020 Determination Letters on State Implementation of IDEA
*Source: US Department of Education’s 2020 Determination Letters on State Implementation of IDEA
Employers are often AFRAID that disabled employees will create more work for their supervisors.
This fear, coupled with employers’ failure to account for disability accommodations in their budget, leads to a lack of external & internal hiring support.
This fear, coupled with employers’ failure to account for disability accommodations in their budget, leads to a lack of external & internal hiring support.
This means that there are few resources allocated to the outreach of the disabled community during the recruitment process and there are few resources allocated to accommodate and train disabled employees once—or rather, if—they are hired.*
*Source: Knowledge@Wharton
*Source: Knowledge@Wharton
The average annual income for disabled adults is $6000 LOWER than for able-bodied adults. This is because there exists an underlying presumption among employers that the quality of work done by disabled people will be worse than their able-bodied counterparts.*
*Source: HuffPost
*Source: HuffPost
Hiring disabled people often becomes thought of as an act of charity, and this dangerous mindset manifests itself in disabled workers’ paychecks.
The average annual cost of health care services for a disabled person is $13,492, which is noticeably higher than the average of $2,835 for an able-bodied person.* For disabled people with more severe conditions, this number can reach over $1 MILLION a year.
*Source: CHRIL
*Source: CHRIL
Many of the aforementioned medical costs are covered by Social Security, Medicaid, and other government welfare programs. However, disabled people are oftentimes forced to stay low-income in order to qualify for these programs.
These constraints on income & assets are justified as a way to relieve taxpayers from any citizens who are trying to take advantage of the system & siphon disability benefits (a rhetoric that perpetuates negative stereotyping of disabled people).
But, the detriment these limitations cause for the majority of the disabled community far outweighs any penny that able-bodied citizens may save.
There is something wrong with the system when it makes more sense for many disabled people to stay at the poverty line and keep their benefits rather than take on a well-paying job—which are hard to come by for disabled workers in the first place—
—and lose the healthcare and social services that would pay for the five- to seven-figure costs of treatments, equipment, and other benefits that are necessary for them to survive. Disabled people should not have to choose between poverty and death.
