APPENDIX
Overall
Number of disabled people in the US: 64 million or 20 percent of the total population; 32 million or 10 percent have a “severe” disability
Percentage of women with disabilities: 25 percent
Percentage of Black people with disabilities: 30 percent
Percentage of Native Americans with disabilities: 24 percent
Percentage of lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults with disabilities: 33 percent
Percentage of transgender people with disabilities: 39 percent
Percentage of all non-disabled Americans who will acquire a disability before reaching retirement age: 25 percent
Most common types of disability: mobility and cognition
Leading cause of disability in the US: neuropsychiatric disorders
Education
Number of children receiving special education services in public schools: 6 million or 13 percent of total public-school enrollment
Most common form of disability among special education students: learning disability (35 percent of total)
Percentage of public-school students receiving special education services who graduate with a high school diploma, by race: white, 73 percent; Black, 57 percent (compared to 88 percent and 75 percent respectively, for non-disabled students)
Percentage of disabled people with a bachelor’s degree or higher: 14.4 percent (compared to 33.8 percent for those without a disability)
Living Conditions
Poverty rate for disabled people: 28 percent
Annual median income of households that include any working-age people with disabilities as a percentage of the annual median income of households without any disabilities: 63 percent ($43,300 compared to $68,700)
Average annual earnings wage gap between a full-time disabled employee and a full-time non-disabled employee: $5,100
Percentage of households with an annual income of less than $15,000 in which a disability is present: 50 percent
Percentage of total homeless population that has a disability: 40 percent
Rate of homelessness for people with schizophrenia: 20 percent (compared to 1 percent for the general population)
Percentage of disabled people living in US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)–assisted public housing that were provided with disability-accessible units: 3 percent
Percentage of disabled people living in HUD–assisted public housing that are denied subsequent requests for disability-accessible features: 70 percent
Labor
Employment–population ratio for people with disabilities: 19.2 percent
Percentage of disabled people who self-identify as preferring to have a job: 68.4 percent
Percentage of jobs in businesses with over 50 employees which must be set aside for disabled people under employment quota systems that cover a majority of European countries: 2–5 percent
Percentage of quota-covered jobs for the disabled in the US: 0 percent (nor does the US mandate affirmative action for disabled people)
Number of disabled people nationwide working in subminimum wage “sheltered workshops,” legally being paid as little as 25–50 percent of the federal minimum wage: 420,000
Annual pay of the CEO of Goodwill Industries, the largest national employer of disabled people at subminimum wages (some as low $2 an hour): $712,000
Working Conditions
Number of annual nonfatal occupational injury and illness cases that lead to days away from work across the US: 1 million
Percentage of disabled people whose impairment resulted from a work-related injury or illness: 36 percent
Total number of Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors nationwide, responsible for the health and safety of 130 million workers employed at more than 8 million worksites: 2,100
Annual federal budget of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration: $550 million
Annual federal military budget: $600 billion
Social Security
Number of people receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI, the federal assistance program for low-income disabled people, based on need): 8.2 million
Number of people receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI, the federal assistance program for disabled people, based on work history): 10 million
Federal poverty level: $12,140 per year (individual)
Average annual SSI payment: $6,600 per year
Average annual SSDI payment: $12,700 per year
Percentage of initial SSDI claim applications that are denied: 65 percent
Percentage of initially-denied SSDI claims that are approved after an appeal hearing: 60 percent
Average number of days the Social Security Administration (SSA) takes to process an initial disability claim: 105
Average number of days it takes for the SSA to grant an appeal hearing to an initially-denied disability claimant: 660
War
Percentage of veterans of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan reporting service-related disabilities: 45 percent
Estimated number of Afghans currently disabled as a result of forty years of war and invasion (Russia, 1979–89; US, 2001–present): Between 800,000 and 2 million
Percentage of Afghans affected by mental disorders or illnesses: 67 percent
Percentage of all childhood disabling injuries in Iraq resulting from military violence: 15 percent (compared to a worldwide rate of 2 percent)
Percentage of children in Iraq suffering psychological and trauma-related disorders: 46.8 percent
Crime and Policing
Disabled individuals are more than twice as likely as non-disabled individuals to be the victim of violence (and those with cognitive disabilities in particular are more than four times as likely as those without disabilities)
Disabled individuals are three times as likely as non-disabled individuals to be the victim of rape or sexual assault (and those with multiple disabilities are five times as likely as those without disabilities)
Percentage of disabled victims of violence who are familiar with the perpetrator of violence (acquaintance, intimate partner, relative): 96 percent
Percentage of women with disabilities who experience domestic violence: 40 percent (compared to 25 percent of all women)
Percentage of people killed by police annually that have a disability or mental disorder: 50 percent and 25 percent, respectively
Percentage of the over 2 million Americans incarcerated in prison or jail that have a disability, by gender: male, 35 percent; female, 44.5 percent
Percentage of those incarcerated in state prisons who have a mental health disorder, by gender: male, 55 percent; female, 73 percent
Nursing Homes
Number of people (of all ages) residing in the nation’s 16,000 nursing homes: 1.4 million
Number of disabled people currently residing in nursing homes who report that they would prefer to live in a community-integrated assisted living setting: Over 250,000
Percentage of nursing homes that have been federally cited for at least one serious violation (neglect, abuse, or death) between 2013 and 17: 40 percent
Percentage of nursing homes that are for-profit institutions: 69.8 percent
Percentage of nursing home residents that rely on Medicaid to cover the $83,000 average annual per-person cost: 70 percent
Average annual profits of the nursing home industry: $18 billion
Median annual pay for a nursing home attendant worker (“orderly”): $26,000 per year
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