Just the Facts

Current Statistics

• 53 million Americans have a disability
• The employment rate for adults without disabilities is 79%; for adults with disabilities, it's 37%
• Although people with disabilities compose 5.95% of the working adult population, they comprise an average of 1.2% of the federal agency workforce.

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Misperceptions About People with Disabilities

Idea: Persons with disabilities need to be protected from failing.
Fact: Persons with disabilities have a right to participate in the full range of human experiences including success and failure. Employers should have the same expectations of, and work requirements for, all employees.

Idea: Persons with disabilities are unable to meet performance standards, thus making them a bad employment risk.
Fact: In 1990, DuPont conducted a survey of 811 employees with disabilities and found 90% rated average or better in job performance compared to 95% for employees without disabilities. A similar 1981 DuPont study which involved 2,745 employees with disabilities found that 92% of employees with disabilities rated average or better in job performance compared to 90% of employees without disabilities. The 1981 study results were comparable to DuPont's 1973 job performance study.

Idea: People with disabilities have a higher absentee rate than other employees and cannot be trained to perform a job as well as an employee without a disability.
Fact: The 30-year Dupont study indicates that employees with disabilities have above-average records in job performance, dependability, attendance, and safety.

Idea: Hiring employees with disabilities increases workers compensation insurance rates.
Fact: Insurance rates are based solely on the relative hazards of the operation and the organization's accident experience, not on whether workers have disabilities.

Idea: Considerable expense is necessary to accommodate workers with disabilities.
Fact: Most workers with disabilities require no special accommodations and the cost for those who do is minimal or much lower than many employers believe. Of the job accommodations suggested by the Job Accommodation Network (JAN), 15% cost nothing, 51% cost between $1 and $500, 12% cost between $501 and $1,000 (therefore, 78% cost between $0 and $1,000).

Idea: Someone with a hearing disability is an ideal employee in a noisy work environment.
Fact: Loud noises of a certain vibratory nature can cause further harm to the auditory system, so they should be hired for all jobs that they have the skills and talents to perform. No person with a disability should be prejudged regarding employment opportunities.

Idea: Employees with disabilities are more likely to have accidents on the job than employees without disabilities.
Fact: The DuPont study showed that the safety records of both groups were identical.