Innovative Strategies to Foster the Economic Advancement of Citizens with Disabilities

One in five adults living in the U.S. have a disability, and over 22 million families nationwide have a member with a disability. Disability cuts across race, gender, ethnicity, age and geography. Consider the following:

• Only 21% of taxpayers with disabilities have incomes over $40,000.
• As of January 2010, 15.2% of the entire U.S. disability population is unemployed, in contrast to the national average unemployment rate of 10.4%.
• Working-age adults with disabilities are 3 times more likely than their nondisabled peers to live at or below the poverty line.

Unlike most Americans, people with disabilities have no tax-advantaged vehicles to save for future expenses and face barriers to asset accumulation that ties access to public benefits (supplemental security income, health care and housing assistance) to eligibility requirements that prohibit savings.

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Participants

Moderator
John Hetterick
National Disability Institute

Welcome
U.S. Representative James Langevin (RI-2)
Chairman, Congressional Disabilities Caucus

Featured Speakers
Rourke O’Brien
New America Foundation

Steve Mendelsohn
Burton Blatt Institute

Carol Wayman
Corporation for Enterprise Development

Steve Beck
Collaboration to Promote Self-Determination