September 2013 — U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, released a report entitled, “High Expectations: Transforming the American Workforce as the ADA Generation Comes of Age.” The report highlights that the “ADA Generation,” described as youth with disabilities who have “come of age after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA),” have benefited from the provisions of the ADA, leading to better education, transportation, and communications access. The report further notes that while the ADA Generation has made strides within secondary education there is still a general disparity in labor force participation among people with and without disabilities. Despite the overall labor force participation gap, for youth with disabilities ages 16 to 19 the gap is less significant. Taking this into consideration, the report identifies four areas which can be utilized to help continue eliminating the labor market disparity for youth with disabilities including:
- Increasing support for high school and middle school students with disabilities,
- Improving transitional services for students with disabilities entering postsecondary education and the workforce,
- “Changing the assumptions in disability benefit programs that discourage young people with disabilities from working,” and
- Working with employers to correct misconceptions about people with disabilities while “building strong pipelines from school to the competitive workforce.
