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Over the last five years, people with disabilities were achieving hard-fought gains in the U.S. workforce. The large employment gap between people with disabilities and those without had declined slightly each year since 2015, according to the 2020 Annual Report on People with Disabilities in America. The improvement came after persistent calls by disability advocates for a greater emphasis on employment and a shift in state policies that prioritized working. As the U.S. economy approached its highest level of employment in a decade in 2019, some 7.5 million Americans with disabilities were working, helping lift many of them out of persistent poverty.

But the job market was thrown into turmoil in early 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on people with disabilities was especially severe. As businesses of all kinds including retailers, restaurants, gyms and movie theaters were forced to close, the number of unemployed soared by millions. Between February and April, the number of people with disabilities who had jobs fell by 18.8%, compared with 15.5% for the general population, according to an analysis by the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) at UMass Boston. Even as the economy recovered slightly in the spring and summer, the disparity remained. By October, 8.5% fewer individuals with disabilities had jobs while only 4.7% of people without disabilities had lost theirs.

The numbers don¡¯t surprise Allen Heinemann, PhD, Director of the Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research (CROR) at the Shirley Ryan ÌÀÍ·Ìõapp. ¡°The employment challenges faced by those with disabilities are well documented. They¡¯re often last to be hired and first to be fired. There¡¯s still a perception among some people that job accommodations could cost a lot of money and that workers with disabilities are less productive,¡± Heinemann says. ¡°That¡¯s simply not true.¡±

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Several disability experts said they believe the deeper cuts in employment for people with disabilities were related to the types of jobs they held rather than societal stigma or overt discrimination. Many workers were concentrated in hard-hit industries such as food service, hospitality and retailing. A large number were in entry-level positions and among the most recently hired, making them first in line to be let go. A new report by the Center for an Urban Future entitled ¡°First Out, Last Back¡± found that nearly all of the clients with disabilities of several New York direct service providers and advocacy organizations had been furloughed or lost their jobs during the pandemic. Five organizations reported that at least half of their clients had been let go.

The pandemic¡¯s effect on clients of Robert Trierweiler, a vocational rehabilitation counselor at the Shirley Ryan ÌÀÍ·Ìõapp, hasn¡¯t been as brutal. Numerous people he worked with were let go or furloughed during the pandemic but recently some of them have been called back including a dog walker and a bartender. ¡°The people in skilled professions just pivoted to work from home,¡± he says. ¡°It¡¯s the unskilled people who are having a harder time.¡± Also playing a role in the higher rates of pandemic-related unemployment: Some people with disabilities lost the support services they depended on to hold jobs. For instance, many in-person job coaches were no longer allowed on the premises,  where their clients worked because of COVID restrictions. Without that support, some workers were let go.

Job losses for those with disabilities may also have had something to do with the employment infrastructure that has evolved to help them find work, says John Butterworth, Director of Employment Systems Change and Evaluation at ICI in Boston. ¡°We still have a very program-oriented service system,¡± he explains, referring to sheltered workshops and small group work options made up of people with disabilities who perform tasks from cleaning office buildings to yard work. ¡°Most day services got deconstructed and shut down because they happen in groups.¡± In fact, almost 70% of the nearly 700 community providers serving individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities surveyed by healthcare consultant Avalere reported in April that they had to close one or more service lines because of the pandemic, resulting in a 32% decrease in revenue.

In 2020, the number of people with disabilities who were employed fell to 17.9% from 19.3% in 2019, according to the US. Bureau of Labor Statistics. For people without disabilities, 61.8% had jobs in 2020, down from 66.3% a year earlier. Across all age groups, people with disabilities were much less likely to be employed, the bureau said, and they were much more likely to be working part-time.

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One potential bright side to the pandemic upheaval has been the successful shift from office-based to home-based work for many office workers in companies in the technology, communications and financial services sectors, disability experts agree. Not having to commute in large crowds is making it easier for many people with disabilities whether they are in a wheelchair or on the autism spectrum, points out Susanne Bruyere, Academic Director of the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability at Cornell University in New York state. ¡°During COVID, autistic people could take advantage of remote work. Some might have found it hard or isolating but for others, this might be a better way to interact. For people who find social interaction challenging, this could be a great alternative as long as they don¡¯t get forgotten.¡±

Another encouraging sign was that some disability service providers, employers and workers were able to pivot during pandemic-related lockdowns. Kimberly Anderson, Director of Employment Services at the nonprofit Center for Human Services, which provides services for people with disabilities in Missouri, secured government funding for smart phones and tablets that could provide remote support to people in community-based jobs. When Christina Peritz, a young hospital worker who prepared and delivered meals to patients, was at risk of losing her job because her workplace coach could no longer be onsite, she became the organization¡¯s first client to receive a dedicated iPhone with specific apps including Microsoft Teams. The phone allowed Peritz to continue to check in with her coach remotely. The shift was so successful, Peritz went from hourly check-ins to only a few a day.

Butterworth hopes that service providers are learning something from cases like Peritz¡¯s and coming up with less overt ways to support workers with disabilities. ¡°This may be forcing us to get out of the way when we¡¯ve been there longer than we should have. If that¡¯s part of what we have learned from this, that¡¯s a good thing.¡±