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Labor and Employment Relations in a Globalized World pp 73–114Cite as

New Approaches to Disability in Social Policy: The Case of the United States

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Part of the book series: Contributions to Economics ((CE))

Abstract

The United States, like many other countries, is still struggling with how best to coordinate policies and programs to support people with disabilities in achieving employment outcomes commensurate with their non-disabled peers. Significant disparities in employment rates persist, and are in part the result of past policies that insisted on considering disability and employment as two separate and marginally-related issues. Disability standards and definitions frequently operate in contradiction to employment—the severity of the disability often negating the possibility of work. In addition, many programs were created in the past to deal with different populations, and rather than seamlessly intermeshing, often work at cross purposes, producing unintended consequences. The U.S. is at a crossroads with regard to this fragmented approach to policy development and implementation. This chapter provides a historical overview of the development of disability policy in the U.S. with a goal towards illuminating the policy disconnects today vis-à-vis employment promotion for people with disabilities.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/DEI.htm.

  2. 2.

    For more information, see the U.S. EEOC web site at http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/ada.html.

  3. 3.

    EEOC Guidance documents are available at web site http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/guidance.html.

  4. 4.

    Calculations by staff of the Cornell University Employment and Disability Institute, using the EEOC Charge Data System data, 2012.

  5. 5.

    For additional information about the FMLA, see the U.S. Department of Labor website at http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/fmla/.

  6. 6.

    http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/disability/tickettowork.asp.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Employment and Disability Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Thomas P. Golden & Susanne M. Bruyère

  2. Disability Policy Solutions, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Ilene Zeitzer

Authors
  1. Thomas P. Golden
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  2. Ilene Zeitzer
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  3. Susanne M. Bruyère
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas P. Golden .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Isik University Department of Management, Istanbul, Turkey

    Toker Dereli

  2. Isik University Department of Management, Istanbul, Turkey

    Y. Pinar Soykut-Sarica

  3. Isik University Department of Economics, Istanbul, Turkey

    Asli Şen-Taşbaşi

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Golden, T.P., Zeitzer, I., Bruyère, S.M. (2014). New Approaches to Disability in Social Policy: The Case of the United States. In: Dereli, T., Soykut-Sarica, Y., Şen-Taşbaşi, A. (eds) Labor and Employment Relations in a Globalized World. Contributions to Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04349-4_4

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