Income Security Policy Paper No. 5
Disability or Work: Handicap Policy Choices
Richard V. Burkhauser
March 1992
Abstract: Cross-national comparisons of disability
programs and disabled populations show that
the social environment workers with handicaps
face can be as important as their health in
affecting their movement into disability. In
this context, American disability policy is
reviewed over the business cycles of the past
two decades. The paper shows that strong
economic recovery has, in general, overcome
the sharp drop in the well-being of people
with handicaps brought on by the recession and
the reduction in program benefits in the early
1980s. However, the doubly handicapped, those
with both health limitations and poor work
skills, have not recovered.
In addition, the paper argues that policies embodied in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) suggest its job accommodation mandates for workers with handicaps could double the time they stay with their employer. However, mandates alone will not dramatically increase employer accommodation. ADA is unlikely to improve either the work chances or well-being of the doubly handicapped. Drawing upon comparisons of programs in other countries, the paper develops a set of policy suggestions including targeted tax credits that could facilitate the movement of the doubly handicapped into the economic mainstream.
A revised version of this paper
appears as "U.S. Policy Towards Workers
with Handicaps." In Olivia S. Mitchell
(ed.), As the Workforce Ages: Costs,
Benefits, and Policy Challenges.
Ithaca, NY: ILR Press (1993), pp. 205-224.
Those interested in this work should see that
publication.
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