Approximately 15% of the world’s population live with some form of disability but only 2-4% have disabilities which cause significant difficulties functioning, yet disabled people are over a third less likely to be employed than non-disabled people. It’s probable this will have multiplied as a result of the pandemic, directly contributing further to the likelihood of lower income, fewer career opportunities and increased isolation.

The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990, a landmark law that prohibited discrimination against people with disabilities. In that same year, Boston held the first Disability Pride Day.

It is commonly held that the inception of the modern US disability rights movement occurred amidst the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. Specifically, two major developments figure prominently in this narrative.

Unemployment among those with autism is approximately 85 percent. This statistic means that roughly two-thirds of people with autism are not working. In general, those with autism had lower employment rates and higher social isolation rates than people with other disabilities.

Lack of opportunity as a blind person comes about in one of two ways. One is that we suffer discrimination and the other is that we very often place ourselves in a position of lowering our expectations, of not believing that we can do what we really can do.

The words disability and disabled describe functional limitations that affect one or more major life activities such as walking, lifting, learning, breathing and everyday day tasks. Which term is right?

I hid my learning disability for years at work, but it’s important to talk about the toll that hiding it can take—and why disclosing can be so hard.