World Autism Awareness Day

 California Assembly Member Suzette Valladares:

From President Biden:

On World Autism Awareness Day, we reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that the more than 5 million Americans who live with autism are able to make the most of their talents and participate fully in our society, and we celebrate the contributions autistic Americans have made to our families, our communities, our Nation, and the world.

We have made significant progress in improving access to opportunity for people with developmental disabilities in recent years. However, many autistic individuals still experience gaps in employment and income. The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded these inequities, creating unique challenges and strains for people with autism and their families.

That is why my Administration is committed to addressing the systemic barriers people with autism face in their daily lives. The pandemic upended school routines for children and students living with disabilities. That is why the Department of Education is working tirelessly to accelerate pandemic recovery for special education programs. In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Housing and Urban Development are committed to ensuring individuals with disabilities have access to affordable housing as we come through this pandemic.

In order to improve quality of life for people with autism and their families in every community, my Administration is committed to funding cutting-edge research to help us better understand, diagnose, and treat autism, including funding research at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that seeks to better understand the underlying mechanisms of autism from childhood through early adulthood, improve methods of early identification and diagnosis, and develop innovations in the delivery of interventions and services.

My Administration remains committed to reducing barriers in access to early diagnoses, interventions, and services for people with autism — regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, culture, or geography — and to incorporating the lived experiences of individuals with autism into their research. Last June, when I signed the Executive Order on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce, I promised to cultivate a Federal workforce that draws from the full diversity of the Nation. One of the ways we are delivering on that promise is through a partnership between the Department of Labor and the Administration for Community Living, which is expanding access to competitive, integrated employment opportunities for people with disabilities, including autism.

In addition, my Administration will continue to build on the work done by the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, the National Autism Coordinator, and others to make certain that autistic Americans have access to the care, services, and support they need, so they can pursue their educational, career, and life interests without discrimination.

Today and every day, we honor autistic people and celebrate the meaningful and measureless ways they contribute to our Nation. We applaud the millions of educators, advocates, family members, caregivers, and others who support them. As we continue to build a better America, we reaffirm our promise to provide Americans with autism the support they need to live independently, fully participate in their communities, and lead fulfilling lives of dignity and respect.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 2, 2022, as World Autism Awareness Day. I call upon all Americans to learn more about autism to improve early diagnosis, to learn more about the experiences of autistic people from autistic people, and to build more welcoming and inclusive communities to support people with autism.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-sixth.

Veterans Day 2020

 From the Census Bureau:

• The number of veterans in the United States declined by a third, from 26.4 million to 18.0 million between 2000 and 2018.

• There are fewer than 500,000 World War II veterans alive today, down from 5.7 million in 2000.

• Women make up a growing share of veterans. Today, about 9 percent of veterans—or 1.7 million— are women. By 2040, that number is projected to rise to 17 percent.

• The largest cohort of veterans alive today served during the Vietnam Era (6.4 million), which lasted from 1964 to 1975. The second largest cohort of veterans served during peacetime only (4.0 million).

• The median age of veterans today is 65 years. By service period, Post-9/11 veterans are the youngest with a median age of about 37, Vietnam Era veterans have a median age of about 71, and World War II veterans are the oldest with a median age of about 93. 

• Veterans from more recent service periods have the highest levels of education. More than three-quarters of Post-9/11 and Gulf War veterans have at least some college experience, and more than one third of Gulf War veterans have a college degree.

• Post-9/11 veterans had a 43 percent chance of having a service-connected disability, after accounting for differences in demographic and social characteristics among veterans—significantly higher than veterans from other periods.

• Among veterans who had a service-connected disability, Post-9/11 veterans had a 39 percent chance of having a disability rating of 70 percent or more—significantly higherthan veterans from other any other periods.

ADA Is 30

President George H.W. Bush on signing the Americans with Disabilities Act, 30 years ago today:

Our success with this act proves that we are keeping faith with the spirit of our courageous forefathers who wrote in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." These words have been our guide for more than two centuries as we've labored to form our more perfect union. But tragically, for too many Americans, the blessings of liberty have been limited or even denied. The Civil Rights Act of '64 took a bold step towards righting that wrong. But the stark fact remained that people with disabilities were still victims of segregation and discrimination, and this was intolerable. Today's legislation brings us closer to that day when no Americans will ever again be deprived of their basic guarantee of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

This act is powerful in its simplicity. It will ensure that people with disabilities are given the basic guarantees for which they have worked so long and so hard: independence, freedom of choice, control of their lives, the opportunity to blend fully and equally into the rich mosaic of the American mainstream. Legally, it will provide our disabled community with a powerful expansion of protections and then basic civil rights. It will guarantee fair and just access to the fruits of American life which we all must be able to enjoy. And then, specifically, first the ADA ensures that employers covered by the act cannot discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities. Second, the ADA ensures access to public accommodations such as restaurants, hotels, shopping centers, and offices. And third, the ADA ensures expanded access to transportation services. And fourth, the ADA ensures equivalent telephone services for people with speech or hearing impediments.

...

Our problems are large, but our unified heart is larger. Our challenges are great, but our will is greater. And in our America, the most generous, optimistic nation on the face of the Earth, we must not and will not rest until every man and woman with a dream has the means to achieve it.

And today, America welcomes into the mainstream of life all of our fellow citizens with disabilities. We embrace you for your abilities and for your disabilities, for our similarities and indeed for our differences, for your past courage and your future dreams. Last year, we celebrated a victory of international freedom. Even the strongest person couldn't scale the Berlin Wall to gain the elusive promise of independence that lay just beyond. And so, together we rejoiced when that barrier fell.

And now I sign legislation which takes a sledgehammer to another wall, one which has for too many generations separated Americans with disabilities from the freedom they could glimpse, but not grasp. Once again, we rejoice as this barrier falls for claiming together we will not accept, we will not excuse, we will not tolerate discrimination in America.

With, again, great thanks to the Members of the United States Senate, leaders of whom are here today, and those who worked so tirelessly for this legislation on both sides of the aisles. And to those Members of the House of Representatives with us here today, Democrats and Republicans as well, I salute you. And on your behalf, as well as the behalf of this entire country, I now lift my pen to sign this Americans with Disabilities Act and say: Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down. God bless you all.

Created Equal: Coronavirus and Disability Discrimination

At Crux, Robert P. George speaks to Charles Camosy about the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Some protocols for rationing limited health care resources focus on the relative need of patients and their relative chances for getting better. Others focus on things like age, cognitive ability, and physical capacity. What sorts of ethical considerations should guide hospitals, medical groups, and other institutions who are trying to decide how they will distribute their limited medical resources?

At the core or foundation of the answer to just about every important ethical question is the principle of the profound, inherent, and equal dignity of each and every member of the human family. In making decisions — including hard, even tragic, decisions about distributing limited medical resources — it is critical that we treat every person as equal in inherent worth and dignity to every other person.

We must avoid the temptation to treat some as superior (and others as inferior) because, for example, they are young and strong (rather than old and frail) or able-bodied (rather than physically disabled or cognitively impaired). The temptation to discriminate invidiously will present itself — about that I’ll give you a money-back guarantee.

Some people will want to throw over the radical egalitarianism (all human beings are “created in the image and likeness of God”; “all men are created equal”) of the sanctity of life ethic and replace it with a “quality of life” ethic that is amenable to decision-making by utilitarian calculation. We must be firm in our resistance to anything of the sort.

If some institutions decide to ration health based purely on age or disability, might they face lawsuits for violations US civil rights law?

Yes, our federal civil rights laws (as well as many state statutes) forbid discrimination based on age or disability. To its credit, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s Office of Civil Rights, under Roger Severino, has already spoken forcefully about the applicability of these laws when it comes to the care of patients and the allocation of health care resources. I’m glad they are getting out ahead on these issues, because, as I noted, the temptation to discriminate invidiously will come.

Some people will say, “why should that Down Syndrome person be given a ventilator when it could be given to someone who’s not ‘retarded’ and who can contribute more to society?” A fully sufficient answer should be: “because in fundamental worth and dignity, the Down Syndrome person is every bit the equal of any other person.”

But for some people, that will cut no ice. But here is an answer that will: “Because federal law forbids discrimination based on disability and you or your institution will be sued or prosecuted if you engage in such discrimination.”

Losing Teachers

Michelle Hackman and Eric Morath at WSJ:

Teachers and other public education employees, such as community-college faculty, school psychologists and janitors, are quitting their jobs at the fastest rate on record, government data shows.

A tight labor market with historically low unemployment has encouraged Americans in a variety of occupations to quit their jobs at elevated rates, with the expectation they can find something better. But quitting among public educators stands out because the field is one where stability is viewed as a key perk and longevity often rewarded.

The educators may be finding new jobs at other schools, or leaving education altogether: The departures come alongside protests this year in six states where teachers in some cases shut down schools over tight budgets, small raises and poor conditions.

In the first 10 months of 2018, public educators quit at an average rate of 83 per 10,000 a month, according to the Labor Department. While that is still well below the rate for American workers overall—231 voluntary departures per 10,000 workers in 2018—it is the highest rate for public educators since such records began in 2001.

Special-education teachers face unusual stresses, and there is a serious shortage in the field. 

Sixty-One Million American Adults Have a Disability

From CDC:

One in 4 U.S. adults – 61 million Americans – have a disability that impacts major life activities, according to a report in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The most common disability type, mobility, affects 1 in 7 adults. With age, disability becomes more common, affecting about 2 in 5 adults age 65 and older.

“At some point in their lives, most people will either have a disability or know someone who has a one,” said Coleen Boyle, Ph.D., director of CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. “Learning more about people with disabilities in the United States can help us better understand and meet their health needs.”

Six types of disability measured

Using data from the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), this is the first CDC report of the percentage of adults across six disability types:

• Mobility (serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs)
• Cognition (serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions)
• Hearing (serious difficulty hearing)
• Vision (serious difficulty seeing)
• Independent living (difficulty doing errands alone)
• Self-care (difficulty dressing or bathing)

These data show that disability is more common among women, non-Hispanic American Indians/Alaska Natives, adults with lower income, and adults living in the South Census region of the United States. The report also shows that:

• After mobility disability, the next most common disability type is cognition, followed by independent living, hearing, vision, and self-care.
• The percentage of adults with disability increased as income decreased. In fact, mobility disability is nearly five times as common among middle-aged (45- to 64-year old) adults living below the poverty level compared to those whose income is twice the poverty level.
• It is more common for adults 65 years and older with disabilities to have health insurance coverage, a primary doctor, and receive a routine health checkup during the previous 12 months, compared to middle-aged and younger adults with disabilities.
• Disability-specific differences in the ability to access health care are common, particularly among adults 18- to 44-years old and middle-aged adults. Generally, adults with vision disability report the least access to health care, while adults with self-care disability report the most access to care.

“People with disabilities will benefit from care coordination and better access to health care and the health services they need, so that they adopt healthy behaviors and have better health,” said Georgina Peacock, M.D., M.P.H., Director of CDC’s Division of Human Development and Disability. “Research showing how many people have a disability and differences in their access to health care can guide efforts by health care providers and public health practitioners to improve access to care for people with disabilities.”

CDC is committed to protecting the health and well-being of people with disabilities throughout their lives. Through its State Disability and Health Programs and national collaborations, CDC will continue to work to lower health differences faced by people with disabilities. To advance this goal, CDC provides information and resources for public health practitioners, doctors, and those who care for people with disabilities.

For more information about CDC’s work to support inclusive settings for people with disabilities, go to http://www.cdc.gov/disabilities.

Fooling Trump on Disability Insurance

At Politico, Michael Grunwald reports on a May conversation between Trump & OMB Director Mick Mulvaney:

“Look, this is my idea on how to reform Social Security,” the former South Carolina congressman began.

“No!” the president replied. “I told people we wouldn’t do that. What’s next?” 

“Well, here are some Medicare reforms,” Mulvaney said. 

“No!” Trump repeated. “I’m not doing that.” 

“OK, disability insurance.”

This was a clever twist. Mulvaney was talking about the Social Security Disability Insurance program, which, as its full name indicates, is part of Social Security. But Americans don’t tend to think of it as Social Security, and its 11 million beneficiaries are not the senior citizens who tend to support Trump.

“Tell me about that,” Trump replied. 

“It’s welfare,” Mulvaney said. 

“OK, we can fix welfare,” Trump declared.

Young Adults

From the Census Bureau:

Today’s young adults look different from prior generations in almost every regard: how much education they have, their work experiences, when they start a family and even who they live with while growing up. A new U.S. Census Bureau report, The Changing Economics and Demographics of Young Adulthood: 1975–2016, looks at changes in young adulthood over the last 40 years. The report focuses on the education, economics and living arrangements of today's young adults and how their experiences differ in timing and degree from what young adults experienced in the 1970s.

Highlights 

• Most of today’s Americans believe that educational and economic accomplishments are extremely important milestones of adulthood. In contrast, marriage and parenthood rank low: over half of Americans believe that marrying and having children are not very important in order to become an adult.
• Young people are delaying marriage, but most still eventually tie the knot. In the 1970s, 8 in 10 people married by the time they turned 30. Today, not until the age of 45 have 8 in 10 people married.
• More young people today live in their parents’ home than in any other arrangement: 1 in 3 young people, or about 24 million 18- to 34-year olds, lived in their parents’ home in 2015.
• In 2005, the majority of young adults lived independently in their own household, which was the predominant living arrangement in 35 states. A decade later, by 2015, the number of states where the majority of young people lived independently fell to just six. Of the top five states where the most young adults lived independently in 2015, all were in Midwest and Plains states.
• More young men are falling to the bottom of the income ladder. In 1975, 25 percent of young men ages 25 to 34 had incomes of less than $30,000 per year. By 2016, that share rose to 41 percent of young men (incomes for both years are in 2015 dollars).
• Between 1975 and 2016, the share of young women who were homemakers fell from 43 percent to 14 percent of all women ages 25 to 34.
• Of young people living in their parents’ home, 1 in 4 are idle, that is they neither go to school nor work. This figure represents about 2.2 million 25- to 34-year-olds. Among other characteristics, these young adults are more likely to have a child, so they may be caring for family, and over one quarter have a disability of some kind.

Eugenics and Sterilization in California

A release from the University of Michigan:

California should consider offering reparations to more than 800 survivors of the state's 20,000 forced sterilizations that took place between 1919 and 1952, say University of Michigan researchers.

Alexandra Minna Stern, U-M professor of American culture and director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and colleagues spent several years combing through thousands of records of sterilizations carried out in California psychiatric institutions—which disproportionately affected poor and minority patients in the state.

"Given the advanced age and declining numbers of sterilization survivors, time is of the essence for the state to seriously consider reparations," said Stern, who also co-directs the Reproductive Justice Faculty Program based at U-M's Institute for Research on Women and Gender.

Stern and her team recommend that California follow the examples of Virginia and North Carolina, states that recently set up funds to compensate survivors of forced sterilization programs.

"Recent efforts in these two states underscore the merit of compensating individuals who have experienced state-sanctioned reproductive justice," Stern said.

Stern team's previous research showed that Latinos were disproportionately sterilized for decades in California. Between 1907 and 1937, 32 states passed eugenic sterilization laws geared to prevent the "feeble-minded" and "insane" from procreating.

Sterilization laws had the effect of depriving individuals marginalized in the U.S. society of their reproductive rights, according to the researchers.

Stern has also provided historical expertise to "No Mas Bebés," a PBS documentary focusing on Mexican immigrant mothers who were sterilized while giving birth at Los Angeles County USC Medical Center in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Her current study appears in the American Journal of Public Health.

Eugenics was part and parcel of the Progressive Movement. 

Disability and Engagement in the Election

Pew reports:

More than 56 million Americans, or 19% of the population, are living with some form of disability – whether physical, mental or communicative, according to the Census Bureau. And recent projections suggest that 35.4 million disabled Americans will be eligible to vote in the 2016 election (roughly 17% of the electorate).

A new analysis of data from Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel finds a slightly different share than the Census Bureau: the Center found that 22% of Americans self-report living with a disability, defined here as a “health problem, disability, or handicap currently keeping you from participating fully in work, school, housework, or other activities.” Of those who say they have a disability, half (51%) say they have “serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs,” 31% say they have “serious difficulty concentrating, remembering or making decisions” and 19% say they have difficulty doing errands alone.

Those self-identifying as disabled are somewhat more likely than the general public to report being particularly engaged with this election. In a survey conducted in June, fully 71% of Americans with disabilities said it “really matters who wins the election,” compared with 59% of Americans who do not have a disability.

Similarly, 41% of those who are disabled were following the campaign “very closely” in June. By comparison, 33% of Americans without disabilities said the same.

These differences are driven primarily by the fact that the disabled, as a group, aredisproportionately older than the population. Though not all disabled Americans are older Americans, many of those 65 and older report being in some way disabled. And older Americans generally tend to be more attentive to politics and government than their younger counterparts. In other words, it is likely age and not disability status that drives their level of political engagement.

Disabilities

From the Census:

On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, transportation, public accommodations, commercial facilities, telecommunications, and state and local government services.

This Facts for Features provides a demographic snapshot of the U.S. population with a disability and examines various services available to them. The statistics come from various Census Bureau censuses and surveys, covering differing periods of time.

Population Distribution
56.7 million
The number of people in the United States in 2010 with a disability, according to the Survey of Income and Program Participation. People with disabilities represented 19 percent of the civilian noninstitutionalized population. People with a disability have a physical or mental impairment that affects one or more major life activities, such as walking, bathing, dressing, eating, preparing meals, going outside the home or doing housework. A disability can occur at birth or at any point in a person’s life.
Source:
Americans With Disabilities: 2010
15.7 million
The number of people age 65 and older with at least one disability, according to data collected from the American Community Survey from 2008 to 2012, which makes up 39 percent of the population in this age group. Of this group, two-thirds had difficulty in walking or climbing stairs. The second-most cited disability was difficulty with independent living, such as visiting a doctor’s office or shopping.
Source:
Older Americans With a Disability: 2008-2012
19.9%
The percentage of the civilian noninstitutionalized population in West Virginia in 2014 with a disability — the highest rate of any state in the nation. Utah, at 9.6 percent, had the lowest rate.
Source:
2014 American Community Survey, Table GCT1810
28.1%
The percentage of the civilian noninstitutionalized population in Pike County, Ky., in 2014 with a disability — among the highest rate in the nation among counties with populations of 65,000 or more. Loudoun County, Va., at 5.5 percent, had among the lowest rates.
Source:
2014 American Community Survey, Table GCT1810
23.2%
The percentage of the civilian noninstitutionalized population in The Villages (CDP), Fla., in 2014 with a disability — among the highest rates in the nation among places with populations of 65,000 or more. San Ramon, Calif., at 4.3 percent, had among the lowest rates. A place is a city, town, village or borough, either legally incorporated or not.
Source:
2014 American Community Survey, Table GCT1810
Services for Those With Disabilities
2,833
The number of business establishments providing special needs transportation in 2012, up 20.7 percent from 2,347 in 2007. Such businesses may use specially equipped vehicles to provide passenger transportation. These businesses employed 61,605 people in 2012 and generated revenues of $3.5 billion. Employment was up 24.0 percent and revenues increased 27.7 percent since 2007.
Source:
2012 and 2007 Comparative Economic Census Geographic Area Series (NAICS 485991) NAICS 485991
14,060
The number of business establishments that provided pet care (except veterinary services) in 2012. These businesses generated revenues of $3.4 billion. Among these businesses are those that train assistance dogs.
Source:
2012 and 2007 Comparative Economic Census Geographic Area Series (NAICS 812910) NAICS 812910
25,964
The number of business establishments providing services for the elderly and people with disabilities in 2012. These businesses employed 901,359 workers and generated $34.1 billion in revenues. In 2007, there were 20,433 such establishments, employing 621,545 people and producing $25.3 billion in revenues. These establishments provide for the welfare of these individuals in such areas as day care, nonmedical home care or homemaker services, social activities, group support and companionship.
Source:
2012 and 2007 Comparative- Economic Census Geographic Area Series (NAICS 624120) NAICS 624120
7,832
The number of business establishments providing vocational rehabilitation services in 2012; these businesses employed 312,659 people and generated revenues of $12.4 billion. In 2007, there were 7,631 such establishments, employing 303,713 people and producing revenues of $11.5 billion. These businesses provide job counseling, job training and work experience to people with disabilities.
Source:
2012 and 2007 Comparative Economic Census Geographic Area Series (NAICS 624310) NAICS 624310
2,344
The number of business establishments providing translation and interpretation services in 2012; these businesses employed 24,926 people and generated revenues of $4.2 billion. In 2007, there were 1,975 such establishments, employing 14,546 people and producing revenues of $1.9 billion. Among these businesses are those that provide sign language services.
Source:
2012 and 2007 Comparative Economic Census Geographic Area Series (NAICS 541930) NAICS 541930
3,597
The number of business establishments providing home health equipment rental in 2012, down 4.4 percent from 3,762 in 2007. Such businesses rent home-type health and invalid equipment, such as wheelchairs, hospital beds, oxygen tanks, etc. These businesses employed 33,935 people in 2012 and generated revenues of $5.4 billion. Employment was up 2.8 percent while revenues decreased 7.8 percent since 2007.
Source:
2012 and 2007 Comparative Economic Census Geographic Area Series (NAICS 532291) NAICS 532291
Specific Disabilities

Note: All data in this section come from Americans With Disabilities: 2010, which contains data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation.
7.6 million: Number of people age 15 and older in 2010 who had a hearing impairment. Among people 65 and older, 4 million had hearing impairments.
8.1 million: Number of people age 15 and older in 2010 with vision impairment.
30.6 million: Number of people age 15 and older in 2010 who had movement impairment, such as walking or climbing stairs.
3.6 million: Number of people age 15 and older in 2010 who used a wheelchair. This compares with 11.6 million people who used canes, crutches or walkers.
2.4 million: Number of people age 15 and older in 2010 who had Alzheimer’s disease, senility or any form of neurocognitive disorders.
12.0 million: Number of people age 15 and older in 2010 who required the assistance of others in order to perform one or more basic or instrumental activities of daily living, such as bathing, dressing, doing housework and preparing meals.

Older People With a Disability

Note: The source for the data in this section is Older Americans With a Disability: 2008-2012, which contains data from the 2008 to 2012American Community Survey.
25.4%
The percentage who were age 85 and older with a disability among the population age 65 and older, according to the 2008-2012 American Community Survey.
More than One-Third
The proportion of people age 85 and older with a disability who lived alone, compared with one-fourth of those age 65 to 74, according to the 2008-2012 American Community Survey.
54.4%
The percentage of the older population who had not graduated from high school and had a disability, twice the rate of those with a bachelor’s degree or higher (26.0 percent), according to the 2008-2012 American Community Survey.
12.6%
The percentage of older Americans living in a household with a disability living in poverty, compared with 7.2 percent of older household population without a disability, according to the 2008-2012 American Community Survey.

Earnings
$21,232
Median earnings in the past 12 months for people with a disability. This is 68 percent of the median earnings, $31,324, for those without a disability. (Both figures pertain to the civilian, noninstitutionalized population 16 years and older, with earnings in the past 12 months.)
Source:
2014 American Community Survey, Table B18140


Mobility

Note: The source for the data in this section is Desire to Move and Residential Mobility: 2010-2011, a report which uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation.
12.5%
The percentage of householders with a disability who desired to move to another residence, higher than the corresponding figure of 8.2 percent for those without a disability. Those with mental disabilities were the most likely to desire to move (20.6 percent).
17.3%
The percentage of householders with a disability who desired to move to another residence and actually did so over a one-year period.
9.3%
The percentage of all householders with a disability who moved to another residence over a one-year period.

Ethnicity and Educational Attainment

The Census Bureau reports:

The percentage of Asians in the U.S. with a bachelor's degree or higher rose to 54 percent in 2015, up from 38 percent in 1995, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau. In addition, Asians and non-Hispanic whites were more likely to hold a bachelor’s degree or higher when compared with blacks and Hispanics.

“We found the percentage of Asian-Americans who have a bachelor’s degree or higher to be greater than the overall rate of 33 percent for the total population,” said Camille Ryan, a statistician in the Census Bureau’s Education and Social Stratification Branch. “In addition, Asian-Americans born in the U.S. who have a bachelor’s degree or higher reached 55 percent in 2015, matching their foreign-born counterparts.”

These findings are from the Census Bureau’s Educational Attainment in the United States: 2015report that uses statistics from the Current Population Survey’s Annual Social and Economic Supplement to examine the educational attainment of adults who are age 25 and older by demographic and social characteristics, such as age, sex, race and Hispanic origin, nativity and disability status.

In 2015, the majority of adults, 88 percent, were at least high school graduates and more than half, 59 percent, had completed at least some college. One out of three adults reported having at least a bachelor’s degree and 12 percent reported having an advanced degree, such as a master’s, professional or doctorate degree.

The report also found that 36 percent of 25- to 29-year-olds held a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2015, up from 25 percent in 1995 and 21 percent in 1975. Moreover, the rate of college completion for the population 25 and older grew to 33 percent in 2015, up from 23 percent in 1995.

Bachelor’s degree or higher attainment rates were not statistically different for men and women age 25 and older at 32 percent and 33 percent, respectively, according to the Current Population Survey. Previously released American Community Survey findings show higher college attainment among women. The American Community Survey is able to measure smaller differences in the population because of its larger sample size.

...

Adults without a disability were more likely to hold a bachelor’s degree than adults who have a disability

 

Bush 41 and Disability

Twenty-five years ago this Sunday, President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi writes at The Huffington Post:

President George H.W. Bush (Bush 41) cares deeply about disability issues. Pre-ADA, as Vice President, he met with disability leaders. According to the outstanding new book Enabling Acts by Lennard J. Davis, Bush spoke of his personal experiences with disability with his brother Prescot, who was born with the use of only one eye; his uncle John Walker, who had polio, his daughter, who died in infancy of leukemia; his son Neil, who was severely dyslexic; and his son Marvin, who had had a colostomy as a result of ulcerative colitis just a few months earlier at the age of 21. At the time, Bush 41 did not personally have any disabilities. But he took what he learned from experiences of loved ones around him for good. He was a champion for, and the signer of, the ADA.

Every disability leader is grateful to Bush 41 for the ADA. What many don't know, however, is the many other ways he championed the cause of people with disabilities. For example, when Gallaudet, a university for people who are deaf, refused to install leaders with hearing impairments, Bush 41 personally interceded. He wrote a letter to the board of trustees urging them to "set an example... appoint a president who is not only highly qualified, but who is also deaf." The battle was pivotal for the entire disability community. When 2500 Gallaudet students and allies marched to Capitol Hill it inspired disability leaders around the world. The result was that I. King Jordan, a deaf candidate for the job, was selected to lead the college. Phil Bravin, also Deaf, was named chairperson of the board of trustees. 41 had been a part of the revolution.

When George H.W. Bush ran for President he also actively campaigned for the votes of people with disabilities. Unlike Governor Mitt Romney, who never mentioned people with disabilities the entire time when he ran for president and lost, Bush 41 listed "disability" into the list of identities that make up the national idea of diversity. He actively reached out to voters with disabilities and their loved ones. He put qualified leaders including Madeleine Will, in positions to help people with disabilities.

Social Security Disability Overpayments

Social Security's inspector general has reported on disability overpayments. The summary:

Our review of 1,532 beneficiaries in current pay status as of October 2003 found that over a 10-year period (from October 2003 through February 2014), SSA assessed overpayments for 44.5 percent of sampled beneficiaries. Based on the sample, we estimated 

• SSA assessed overpayments totaling about $16.8 billion between October 2003 and February 2014 for approximately 4 million beneficiaries who were in current payment status in October 2003;

•  SSA recovered about $8.1 billion of the $16.8 billion in overpayments it assessed; and

• SSA prevented about $8 billion in overpayments between October 2003 and February 2014 to approximately 1 million beneficiaries in current pay status in October 2003 by suspending monthly payments.

Additionally, the overpayment rate in Fiscal Year 2004 was 3.1 percent of all benefits paid that year. SSA reviewed the draft report and provided technical comments regarding unavoidable overpayments related to medical improvement, which we incorporated into the body of this report.

Disability Data

Today is the 24th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  The Census reports:

On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, transportation, public accommodations, commercial facilities, telecommunications, and state and local government services.

Population Distribution

56.7 million
Number of people in the United States in 2010 with a disability. People with disabilities represented 19 percent of the civilian noninstitutionalized population. Persons with a disability have a physical or mental impairment that affects one or more major life activities, such as walking, bathing, dressing, eating, preparing meals, going outside the home, or doing housework. A disability can occur at birth or at any point in a person's life.
By age —

• 8 percent of children under 15 had a disability.
• 21 percent of people 15 and older had a disability.
• 17 percent of people 21 to 64 had a disability.
• 50 percent of adults 65 and older had a disability.

Source: Americans with Disabilities: 2010 <www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p70-131.pdf>
20%
Percentage of females with a disability, compared with 17 percent of males.
Source: Americans with Disabilities: 2010 <www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p70-131.pdf>

...

Specific Disabilities

7.6 million
Number of people 15 and older who had a hearing impairment. Among people 65 and older, 4 million had hearing impairments.
Source: Americans with Disabilities: 2010 <www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p70-131.pdf>
8.1 million
Number of people 15 and older with a vision impairment.
Source: Americans with Disabilities: 2010 <www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p70-131.pdf>
30.6 million
Number of people 15 and older who had movement impairment, such as walking or climbing stairs.
Source: Americans with Disabilities: 2010 <www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p70-131.pdf>
3.6 million
Number of people 15 and older who used a wheelchair. This compares with 11.6 million people who used canes, crutches or walkers.
Source: Americans with Disabilities: 2010 <www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p70-131.pdf>
2.4 million
Number of people 15 and older who had Alzheimer's disease, senility or any form of neurocognitive disorders.
Source: Americans with Disabilities: 2010
<www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p70-131.pdf>
12.0 million
Number of people 15 and older who required the assistance of others in order to perform one or more basic or instrumental activities of daily living, such as bathing, dressing, doing housework and preparing meals.
Source: Americans with Disabilities: 2010 <www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p70-131.pdf>

Earnings and Poverty

$20,184
Median earnings in the past 12 months for people with a disability. This is 66 percent of the median earnings, $30,660, for those without a disability.
Source: 2012 American Community Survey, Table B18140 <http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_1YR_B18140&prodType=table>
...
23%
Percentage of people with a disability who were in poverty. By comparison, those without a disability had a poverty rate of 15 percent.
Source: 2012 American Community Survey, Table B18130
<http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_1YR_B18130&prodType=table>
Government Assistance
30%
Percentage of people who received income-based government assistance and have a disability; 18 percent of assistance recipients had difficulty walking or climbing stairs.
Source: Disability Characteristics of Income-Based Government Assistance Recipients in the United States: 2011 (from American Community Survey)
<http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acsbr11-12.pdf>

Disability Rights and Gun Rights

The Los Angeles Times reports:

The group Disabled Americans for Firearms Rights, formed before the December 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Conn., saw its membership quadruple to 19,000 after the event, energizing its lobbying on behalf of gun owners. Many disabled citizens have difficulty wielding traditional pistols and rifles, which has prompted some to become vociferous allies in the campaign to block new restrictions on assault-style weapons.

"They're banning these weapons for arbitrary reasons — because it has a certain grip or stock — when in reality those are the features that someone with a disability like me needs to operate a firearm," said Scott Ennis, a hemophiliac who started the Connecticut-based disabled firearm-owners group and serves as its president. Like Foti, Ennis suffered joint damage that makes it difficult for him to grip and shoot.
...

Federal statistics show that people with disabilities are more likely to be victims of crime. Women with disabilities are targeted three times as often as others, while the rate for disabled men was nearly double that of others as of 2011, the most recent year available from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Hate crimes against the disabled increased last year by 67%, with 102 reported, according to the FBI.

"When I was growing up, there seemed to be an unwritten rule that even thugs would leave handicapped people alone," [disabled gun owner Sal] Foti said, "Today, I'm sorry to say, that's gone, and people who are disabled are considered easy prey.… I don't want to be a victim."

The New York Times reports on mental illness and gun rights:

 Most states simply adhere to the federal standard, banning gun possession only after someone is involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility or designated as mentally ill or incompetent after a court proceeding or other formal legal process. Relatively few with mental health issues, even serious ones, reach this point.

As a result, the police often find themselves grappling with legal ambiguities when they encounter mentally unstable people with guns, unsure how far they can go in searching for and seizing firearms and then, in particular, how they should respond when the owners want them back.

“There is a big gap in the law,” said Jeffrey Furbee, the chief legal adviser to the Police Department in Columbus, Ohio. “There is no common-sense middle ground to protect the public.”

A vast majority of people with mental illnesses are not violent. But recent mass shootings — outside a Tucson supermarket in 2011, at a movie theater last year in Aurora, Colo., and at the Washington Navy Yard in September — have raised public awareness of the gray areas in the law. In each case, the gunman had been recognized as mentally disturbed but had never been barred from having firearms.

FDR in a Wheelchair

Presidents have long tried to control what the public sees of them.  A scholar has found rare film footage of FDR in a wheelchair.  AP reports:

Three Laws of Social Programs

At AEI, Charles Murray follows up on Nicholas Krisof's welfare article by explaining three laws of social programs:

1. The Law of Imperfect Selection. Any objective rule that defines eligibility for a social transfer program will irrationally exclude some persons.

This law accounts for the reason that programs like Food Stamps and the Supplemental Security Income program constantly expand. Whenever the people who administer the programs run into a case of a genuinely needy person who has been excluded under a current rule, they tend to redefine the rule or otherwise alter the program’s administration to be more inclusive, which in turn brings more people who don’t need the social transfer under its umbrella.

2. The Law of Unintended Rewards. Any social transfer increases the net value of being in the condition that prompted the transfer.

Kristof referenced the increased net value of being illiterate because of the “intellectual disability” payment of $698 per month that leads parents to withdraw their children from literacy classes. But the same thing is true of every payment of any kind that requires people to demonstrate that they have a problem before they qualify for the payment. It is not a defect in program design. It is inescapable whenever you give rewards for having a problem.

3. The Law of Net Harm. The less likely it is that the unwanted behavior will change voluntarily, the more likely it is that a program to induce change will cause net harm.

This is not as obvious as the first two laws, but just as inexorable. My favorite chapter of Losing Ground is a thought experiment about a government program that uses financial rewards to reduce smoking. If the rewards are small, nothing will change. If they are large enough to induce a significant number of people to quit smoking, the program will inevitably lead to more people who take up smoking in the first place and the net number of inveterate smokers.

Poverty and Dependency

Many posts on this blog have discussed family, inequality, and poverty. From a dateline in Jackson, Kentucky, Nicholas Kristof writes in The New York Times:

This is painful for a liberal to admit, but conservatives have a point when they suggest that America’s safety net can sometimes entangle people in a soul-crushing dependency. Our poverty programs do rescue many people, but other times they backfire.

Some young people here don’t join the military (a traditional escape route for poor, rural Americans) because it’s easier to rely on food stamps and disability payments.

Antipoverty programs also discourage marriage: In a means-tested program like S.S.I., a woman raising a child may receive a bigger check if she refrains from marrying that hard-working guy she likes. Yet marriage is one of the best forces to blunt poverty. In married couple households only one child in 10 grows up in poverty, while almost half do in single-mother households.

Most wrenching of all are the parents who think it’s best if a child stays illiterate, because then the family may be able to claim a disability check each month.

“One of the ways you get on this program is having problems in school,” notes Richard V. Burkhauser, a Cornell University economist who co-wrote a book last year about these disability programs. “If you do better in school, you threaten the income of the parents. It’s a terrible incentive.”

About four decades ago, most of the children S.S.I. covered had severe physical handicaps or mental retardation that made it difficult for parents to hold jobs — about 1 percent of all poor children. But now 55 percent of the disabilities it covers are fuzzier intellectual disabilities short of mental retardation, where the diagnosis is less clear-cut. More than 1.2 million children across America — a full 8 percent of all low-income children — are now enrolled in S.S.I. as disabled, at an annual cost of more than $9 billion

Bob Dole and the Senate

A previous post noted that most current members of the House and Senate were not serving when Congress last passed a comprehensive tax reform in 1986. Turnover is also important in understanding this report from Roll Call:

It isn’t Bob Dole’s Senate anymore.

The wheelchair-bound, 89-year-old former Senate majority leader, GOP presidential nominee and World War II veteran was escorted onto the floor Tuesday by his wife, former Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., to rally support for the United Nations disabilities treaty.

Last week, he was being treated at the Walter Reed National Medical Military Center. This week, he was trying to buttonhole colleagues to support an initiative to extend the rights granted to Americans under the Americans with Disabilities Act to citizens of the world.

Dole was gravely injured during World War II when his right arm was shattered in battle, and he has been a longtime advocate for the rights of the disabled, particularly veterans.

One by one, Senators of both parties approached the frail national leader, with former colleagues gently resting their hands on his shoulder or reaching out to his left hand, briefly clasping the man who once presided over the chamber with a mix of wit, tactical guile and ruthlessness.

Then, one by one, after Dole was wheeled off the floor, most Republicans voted against the measure.

Of 47 current Republican members of the Senate (there will be 45 in January), only 11 served with Dole before he left the Senate in mid-1996. And only seven of the eleven will be back next year.

• Lugar (defeated in primary)
• Hatch
• Cochran
• Grassley
• McConnell
• Shelby
• McCain
• Hutchison (retiring)
• Inhofe
• Snowe (retiring)
• Kyl (retiring)