According to DisabilityScoop.com, adults with intellectual disabilities are finding trouble entering the workforce, with about 66 percent being unemployed.
The website reported that a Gallup survey indicated that of those workers who are intellectually disabled, “slightly more than half are employed in competitive environments alongside those without disabilities, while 38 percent work in sheltered workshops and 9 percent are self-employed.”
The findings came from a national poll of more than 1,000 parents or guardians of adults with intellectual disabilities conducted by Gallup and the Center for Social Development and Education at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
“A meaningful job is important to most of us, and people with intellectual disabilities are no different,” Gary Siperstein, director of the Center for Social Development and Education at the University of Massachusetts Boston and the lead researcher of the study told DisabilityScoop.com. “Government has invested millions of dollars in better outcomes for adults with (intellectual disabilities) as they transition out of high school and into the labor force. Unfortunately, this study shows that we haven’t done enough.”
Among the roughly 33 percent who were employed, only 26 percent actually worked full-time. In many cases, those who worked were hired through sheltered staffing workshops and earned less than minimum wage in his or her state.
Popular fields for intellectually disabled workers included customer service, food service, landscaping, construction and animal care.
My Child Was Born With an Intellectual Disability
Often, disabilities that affect a person’s intelligence, including brain damage and cerebral palsy, are the result of a healthcare provider’s negligence at birth. Some of these injuries are the result of the failure to order a caesarian section delivery by a medical provider.
These horrible birth injuries result in intellectual limitations, hearing deficits, vision impairment, behavioral problems, seizures, speaking difficulties and learning disabilities. All of these issues require extended therapy and rehabilitation.
The fact that so many people with intellectual disabilities are having trouble obtaining jobs is a sad reminder of why family members of birth injury victims should seek compensation through malpractice lawsuits.
Please contact the birth injury attorneys at our firm immediately if your son or daughter is suffering from an intellectual disability because of a healthcare provider’s negligence, so that we may advise you of your legal rights. You can meet with our birth injury attorneys to see what options are available to you. For more information, call our firm at 1 (800) 460-0606 to schedule a free consultation.
[Did You Know: According to the CDC, male children are twice as likely to have a developmental disability than females are.]
Cappolino Dodd Krebs LLP – Birth Injury Attorneys
Source: http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2014/02/18/survey-intellectual-employed/19114/
