Mr. Mxyzptlk is an odd character from Superman lore. From
another dimension, this character is a mischievous practical
joker who uses his powers to warp “reality” on earth and
create mayhem. As I read earlier today, his main claim to
fame is his “topsy-turvy magical, nightmarish alterations of
reality.” His only weaknesses are that he can not stand
being ridiculed and, if tricked into saying or spelling his
name backwards (Kltpzyxm), he is involuntarily sent back to
his home dimension for a minimum of 90 days.
On May 12, 2006 the U.S. Census Bureau issued a press
release entitled “More than 50 Million Americans Report Some
Level of Disability”. Summarizing topical highlights from
information collected in the 2002 census, it provides
information on employment, educational achievement, computer
usage, prevalence of mobility impairments, etc. Here are
some of the employment-related findings:
• Approximately 51.2 million people said they had a
disability; for 32.5 million of them, the disability was
severe.
• About 56 percent of people ages 21 to 64 who had a
disability were employed at some point in the one-year
period prior to the interview. People with a severe
disability status reported the lowest employment rate (42
percent). This compared with the employment rates of people
with a nonsevere disability (82 percent) and those with no
reported disability (88 percent).
• 32 percent of people ages 25 to 64 with a nonsevere
disability and 22 percent with a severe disability were
college graduates. The corresponding rate for those without
a disability was 43 percent.
• Among adults ages 16 to 64, 11.8 million or 6 percent
reported the presence of a condition that makes it difficult
to remain employed or find a job.
• Median earnings for people with no disability were
$25,000, compared with $22,000 for people with a nonsevere
disability and $12,800 for those with a severe disability.
Based on this press release, a writer for the Associated
Press immediately produced an article entitled “Most
Disabled Americans Have Jobs” that was picked up by major
newspapers across the country. The result? A little mayhem
within the disability community! Here at Diversity World, I
quickly received several emails – all questioning the
validity of the data. One reader wrote: “Are they (the
government) trying to convince all of the fine American
people the disabled are working despite their disability?
All the people I know and some professional people think the
opposite.”
It appears that many of the country’s newspapers received
similar comments from their readers. Interpreted one way,
the article indicates that it is pretty easy to get a job if
you have a disability. I was particularly struck by the
comment from a reader of the Sacramento Bee:
“When I applied for disability benefits, I was faced with
the assumption that I was simply too lazy to work. In fact,
my disability benefits (if I ever get them) will be less
than a full-time minimum wage job, and the part-time jobs
that I could manage pay even less than the amount of
disability benefits I'd be entitled to! What neither the
doctors nor the judges were willing to accept was the number
of jobs I had applied for and been rejected from, due to the
symptoms the interviewers could see. According to the judge,
any employer would be thrilled to get someone with my
qualifications. He's half-right.”
I love that last sentence: “He’s half-right” – meaning, I
assume, that while employers are thrilled with this man’s
job qualifications, they are equally un-thrilled by the
presence of his disability. “Half-right”… I think that may
also be a good way to describe the Census data – as it is
being portrayed.
Back to Mr. Mxyzptlk… I wonder if maybe he has a sizeable
army of researchers and reporters who are secretly
manipulating all of the data and research that focus on
disability and employment - mischievously creating
“topsy-turvy magical… alterations of reality”. One thing is
certain. No one but a seasoned researcher can really
understand how to interpret the various facts and figures
that are bandied about.
In the April 2004 issue of this newsletter, I wrote an
article called “Being Myth-Informed About Employment And
Disability” – basically debunking some of the urban legends
that abound in this area. One of these is the notion that
there is an over 70% unemployment rate for people with
disabilities. As borne out by the Census Bureau’s press
release, it is closer to the truth to simply say that people
with disabilities are 2.25 times as likely to be unemployed
as their non-disabled counterparts. But is that really the
whole truth?
Earlier this month I had invited a well-respected
researcher to comment on the Census Bureau’s Press Release
and interpret it for our readers. Unfortunately, he didn’t
accept the invitation. Instead, I’ll have to offer a few of
my own perspectives.
For those of us who are really enmeshed in the critical
issues of exclusion, discrimination and employment barriers
that hinder people with disabilities from achieving
equitable participation in the workforce, we need to
understand that, for the most part we are going to be
interested in the data that is produced for people with
severe disabilities. While people with non-severe
disabilities certainly encounter difficulties in securing
and maintaining employment, they are not nearly as
pronounced as those of people with severe disabilities – the
folks that are the immediate object of so much of our
efforts, services and advocacy.
There is no easy way to explain the Census Bureau’s
determination of “severe disability”. Essentially, it is
determined by the responses people give to their level of
ability in performing a variety of “activities of daily
living”. We can have some confidence that to these people,
their particular disability presents more than an
inconvenience to their life experience.
A few years after the passage of the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA), I remember hearing that the vast
majority of ADA complaints were initiated by people with
back injuries – yet few people with back injuries were among
the activists that struggled and lobbied for years to have
the ADA enacted. Yes, people with back injuries rightfully
enjoy protection under the ADA, but they weren’t at the
heart of it and they weren’t its primary focus. It was
people with severe disabilities that were at the core of the
ADA. The ADA was borne out of their blood, sweat and tears.
In a similar vein, much research data covers disability with
broad strokes and embraces a very wide spectrum of
characteristics under the term “disability”. More often than
not, it takes some real effort to mine the “core” data from
it that applies to people with severe disabilities.
As an example, let’s take a closer look at this report’s
assertion that people with disabilities have an employment
rate of 56%. This, of course, is the statement that gave
birth to the “Most Disabled Americans Have Jobs”
pronouncement.
64% of the people subsumed under the term “Disabled
Americans” are folks who have severe disabilities. For these
32.5 million Americans the employment rate is only 42%. That
means that 13.7 severely disabled Americans are considered
employed. Does that mean that they “Have Jobs” as we are
being led to believe? Not really. Apparently, being
classified as “employed” only means that they reported SOME
employment in the twelve months prior to the survey.
What we learn from further analysis of the Census data is
that of those who were considered “employed”, only about 40%
of them had uninterrupted year-round employment – and
roughly three-quarters of those folks had full-time jobs
while the rest were employed only part-time. While I haven’t
seen a statistical analysis of it, I would speculate that
the remaining 60% of “employed” people with severe
disabilities likely have only a very fragmented and sporadic
array of part-time, temporary contract employment
experiences in their work histories.
Yes, it seems that only 12.8% of people with severe
disabilities had full-time, year round employment to report
– in contrast to 52.6% of the non-disabled population. Put
another way, we could say that people without disabilities
have a four times stronger likelihood of having steady
full-time employment than do people with severe
disabilities.
Well there is just one look at a bit of the quantitative
data available on employment for people with disabilities.
While it is entirely another can of worms, I am still
anxious to see some strong research findings on the
qualitative dimension. What can research tell us about the
underemployment of people with disabilities? Quantitative
data like this always raises questions for me about the
nature of the jobs that people are engaged in – the extent
to which they are working in positions that really draw on
their best interests, skills and talents – and the extent to
which those same interests, skills and talents are lying in
waste as people with disabilities are hired into jobs that
don’t recognize their full potential in the workplace. But,
like I said, that is another can of worms. In the meantime…
“Most Disabled Americans Have Jobs”… I don’t think so!
Springing that headline on the public was inexcusably
misleading. Talk about “topsy-turvy magical… alterations of
reality”! How many researchers and reporters are doing Mr.
Mxyzptlk’s bidding? How do you say “researcher” and
“reporter” backwards? Maybe we can get them to go away.
~ Rob McInnes
© Rob McInnes, Diversity World, May, 2006
(If not used for commercial purposes, this article may be
reproduced, all or in part, providing it is credited to "Rob
McInnes, Diversity World - www.diversityworld.com". If
included in a newsletter or other publication, we would
appreciate receiving a copy.)
Read the April 2004 article: “Being Myth-Informed About
Employment And Disability”... 
