Golden

The ILR School's Employment and Disability Institute (EDI) is working to identify and help overcome the problems that New Yorkers with disabilities have in getting jobs.

As a partner in a $12 million initiative to improve employment for New Yorkers with disabilities, EDI will help develop a five-year strategic plan to close the employment gap faced by more than 1 million state residents with disabilities.

"Part of the challenge is understanding the roadblocks to employment," said Thomas Golden, EDI associate director and a project co-principal investigator. "We have data, but we don't really have a robust picture of the experiences of New Yorkers who are disabled as they try to go back to work."

The "New York Makes Work Pay" project will help uncover the details of people's experiences, Golden said, and build understanding of the critical interventions needed to support the myriad of stakeholders in the employment process.

The project is a "comprehensive, coordinated system of identifying and removing barriers for New Yorkers living with disabilities," wrote New York Gov. David Paterson in a letter of support.

Researchers on the project will develop a Web site and other tools to provide New Yorkers with disabilities with the information they need to make informed choices about going to work, said Golden. For example, Golden noted that "some people worry returning to work could jeopardize their health care. The rules governing many public entitlements are so complex, many decide to not take the risk."

The researchers will also equip service providers with cutting-edge best practices and inform employers and industry about the incentives that support people with disabilities who are returning to work.

More than 1 million state residents between the ages of 21 and 64 have one or more disabilities, according to the 2007 Disability Status Report, published by EDI. People with disabilities comprise 12 percent of the population, ages 21 to 64; 34 percent are employed, compared with 78 percent of those without disabilities. The annual median 2007 income of a household with a person with a disability in that age group was $38,800, according to the report, compared with $66,100 for similar households that did not include a person with disabilities.

"New York Makes Work Pay," sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services, began this year. Partners include the New York State Most Integrated Settings Coordinating Council's Employment Committee, the New York State Office of Mental Health and Syracuse University's Burton Blatt Institute.

Mary Catt is a staff writer for the ILR School.