Disability Links and Resources

  Facts About Persons With Disabilities

In 1993, there was an estimated 290 million persons with disabilities in the world; this number is expected to double by the year 2025.

An estimated 50 million Americans have a disability. Some of the following are included in this large number:

• 7 million are developmentally disabled, experience mental illness or emotional disability;
• Over 1.5 million are hearing impaired;
• Nearly 1.6 million are visually impaired or are legally blind;
• Approximately 9 million are unable to walk a quarter of a mile without assistance;
• Nearly 1.5 million have partial to complete paralysis; and
• More than 4.3 million children between the ages of six and twenty-one experience some type of disability. ¨

Florida, the fourth most populous state, ranks third in the number of persons with disabilities. This number is estimated at 2.2 million people with disabilities.

Of those Florida citizens with disabilities, an estimated 870,000 are of working age; an estimated 562,000 of working age are unemployed; and an estimated 178,000 have disabilities so severe they cannot work.

Thirty-eight percent of Florida businesses surveyed reported hiring at least one person with a disability over the last three years; seventy-two percent of these said the employment of people with disabilities has had a favorable effect on their business.

For every $1 contributed to assist people with disabilities, $16 is returned back into the economy in terms of saved public funds and taxes paid.

Many jobs of the 1990's do not require physical exertion and, with trends toward telecommuting and other more flexible employment options, these jobs are viable options for individuals with physical disabilities.

The increasing rate of new business starts presents more opportunities for people with disabilities. Combining small business ventures with home-based employment may result in very creative possibilities.

The cost to society for unemployed persons with disabilities included an estimated $20 billion in Social Security benefits. *

Sources: President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities , Mason-Dixon Poll, January 1995, State of Florida Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, National Organization for Disabilities Census Bureau, Florida Governor's Alliance Cost Benefit Study of Employment of People with Disabilities-1999

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