New Yorkers with disabilities face persistent challenge, audit finds
New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli speaks before the swearing-in ceremony for Sen Anna M. Kaplan at Clinton G Martin Park in New Hyde Park, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. Credit: Jeff Bachner
New Yorkers with disabilities are facing persistent challenges to joining the workforce three years after the pandemic upended the job market, a state comptroller study released Wednesday found.
The statewide share of residents with disabilities employed declined to about 26% in 2022 from 28% in 2019, according to the report from the state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Nationally, the share increased in 2022 to roughly 35% from around 31% in 2019. The difference between New York and the nation in 2022 is the largest recorded in the past 13 years, the report found.
For people of working age who had a disability, the unemployment rate in 2020 was 13.9% in New York and 13.4% nationally, the report said. By 2022, the rate was 8.2% in United States and 11.9% in New York.
“For people living with disabilities, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated many challenges, but also presented new opportunities through increased remote work,” DiNapoli said in a news release. “New York needs to address barriers to equal employment and invest in services and supports that will help level the playing field for disabled New Yorkers in the workplace.”
Between 2020 and 2022, the number of working-age people with disabilities grew 14.4% in New York and 10.9% nationally, according to the report.
Those with disabilities face barriers to getting a job including a lack of transportation, but Long Island administrators said having an inclusive workplace is key for those employees.
New York has nearly 830,000 people with disabilities between 16 and 64 in 2022, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. They represent roughly 7% of the working-age population, the report found.
“Despite more than 30 years of civil rights legislation, and programs designed to move … the climate with people with disabilities in the other direction, it's disheartening to see this,” Chris Rosa, president and CEO of The Viscardi Center, a nonprofit that educates, employs and empowers people with disabilities or similar needs.
He said there should be changes in asset and income Medicaid eligibility for people with disabilities to spur their employment because it would allow them to earn wages while keeping important benefits such as home health care.
But, he said, the workforce is eager. “We've been held out of the workforce for so long, that when we actually enter the workforce, we tend to hold on to those jobs with a ferocious tenacity,” he said.
In recent years, the state has made several efforts to increase opportunities for people with disabilities, the report said.
Last year, the Office of the Chief Disability Officer was “established to coordinate State agency operations to fully implement the Americans with Disabilities Act and ensure that New Yorkers with disabilities are given the accommodations necessary to have equal opportunities for employment,” the report said.
"As the Comptroller notes, many initiatives are underway, including a federal technical assistance grant to launch a multiagency effort to increase competitive integrated employment, as well as funding in the Executive Budget to support training opportunities," said Erin Silk, a spokeswoman for the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities.
Jane Reich, director of day and employment services at the Center for Developmental Disabilities, Inc. in Woodbury, said that transportation can be a deciding factor between a person with a disability getting a job and staying at home.
“Most of the people we work with don't drive, so they rely on public transportation,” she said.
In turn, the public transportation on Long Island can be spotty.
Before the pandemic, she said employers were more willing to have employees carve out responsibilities for job seekers with disabilities.
Today, some employers say that all employees must do all functions of the job, forcing out some candidates with disabilities.
“So, we have a lot of employees that are … good clerks, but maybe they don't have the skills needed to be working the cash register and being told, ‘Hey, they're going to lose their job because they have to use a cash register.’”
Moreover, more people need training, but the funding has also not increased, said Mary Turek, who oversees the supported employment program at the Maryhaven in Port Jefferson Station. The center provides vocational training as well as residential services and day habilitation to people with disabilities, according to its website.
There needs to be more job coaches and training facilities, she said.
“To hire our guys you’re getting somebody who wants to work, you’re getting somebody who is going to show up, who has that motivation,” she said.
Education: Howard University
Tiffany Cusaac-Smith came to Newsday in 2023 after being a race and history reporter at USA TODAY, where she wrote enterprise and spot articles examining how the past shapes the present. Previously, she worked as the race and justice reporter at the USA TODAY Network of New York, covering issues such as criminal justice reform, housing, environmental justice, health care and politics. At The Journal News/lohud.com in Westchester County, she covered Yonkers, the state's third-largest city. She also worked at The Associated Press in Atlanta.
Honors and Awards: Criminal justice reporting fellowship with the National Press Foundation; New York News Publishers Association award for distinguished investigative reporting; Contributed reporting for Best of Gannett honor; Member of Table Stakes, a program funded by the Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund and managed by the American Press Institute to transform local news.
