New England ADA Center Grant Abstract

Date: Oct 30, 2006

Summary

Adaptive Environments, an educational non-profit organization that has been home to the New England DBTAC for the past ten years, embraces the opportunity to continue the core services which are the bedrock of voluntary ADA compliance but also to restructure the program to be more responsive and rigorous with an expectation of improving employment outcomes for people with disabilities. We have built a new set of partnerships and collaborations led by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University that will conduct evidence-based research with a set of additional collaborating organizations to implement comprehensive intervention and descriptive research strategies. The timing is ideal. We are confident that quality research will drive new insights and new practices and allow people with disabilities across the spectrum of age, culture and ability to thrive in their academic and work lives.

Need

Entities with responsibilities under the ADA, and people with disabilities with rights under the ADA continue to need the facts about rights and responsibilities but there is an increasingly appetite to understand ‘what works’ and how to achieve the intent of the ADA. There is no aspect of the ADA more urgently important to address than the equal opportunity to work and thrive.

The new DBTAC scope arrives just in time to serve a regional alarm bell to identify solutions that link success in learning to success in work for people traditionally left behind. This comfortable educational mecca with a host of cutting edge businesses will not be recognizable in 20 years unless the region bridges the gulf between an aging advantaged population and a poorer, younger population commonly failed by the current higher educational system and unable to take advantage of good work. People with disabilities are too commonly found in that group.

Evidence of failure abound. Despite past attempts to increase workforce participation, individuals with disabilities continue to be employed at much lower rates than individuals without disabilities. In New England, approximately 40.8% of adults age 21 to 64 with disabilities were employed, compared to 80.5% of adults without disabilities. Improving employment outcomes through evidence based research will systematically identify impediments to employment, particularly in the bridge between higher education and work and discover tested strategies that can redefine the region’s future.

Research Questions

1. Will an analysis of databases, creating a systematic method for targeting growing jobs and employers and matching them with local college programs graduating students with disabilities who can fill those jobs improve employment outcomes?
2. Can New England DBTAC enhance employment potential of college educated students with disabilities, their support services and employers by increasing knowledge of rights and responsibilities and replication of ‘what works’ under title I of the ADA?
3. Can New England DBTAC increase employability of college educated students by increasing awareness of the assistive and information technology, strategies and accommodations available to support job performance?

Target Population

Students with disabilities and their diverse support services at institutes of higher education, and employers in demand-driven, high growth industries in New England.

Outcomes

Improve understanding of rights and responsibilities under the ADA. Identify innovative approaches and tested solutions that increase employment. Produce and disseminate a “Guide to New England Jobs” for individuals with disabilities. Publish results of findings in refereed journals. Utilize networks of new collaborators to disseminate information, materials and research findings.

Benefits

Enhance our knowledge of innovative approaches and tested solutions for improving the future employment prospects for people with disabilities. Improve understanding and implementation of the ADA in New England.

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