Recruiting the Disabled: Hidden Assets

Joanie Sompayrac, JD, MAcc, CPA, and John Fulmer, PhD, and Richard A. Turpin, PhD, CPA

According to the U.S. Census, almost 50 million Americans over the age of 5 have at least one disability—that is nearly one out of every five Americans. Over 33 million of those are working-age men or women. Furthermore, an estimated 35 million people are considered severely disabled, and of those between the ages of 21 and 64, about 46% remain employed, according to author Timothy Moore (ezinearticles.com/?How-Many-Disabled-Americans-Are-There?&id=1918829). Recent decades have seen significant legislation to ensure that those workers have access—access to public buildings, access to employment, and access to justice. One of the most important pieces of legislation that has attempted to enable such access is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990.