<p>^Thanks, Marian. That comment was an attempt to be brief. I’m aware of the wide range of disabilities.</p>
<p>“In fact there are so many on disability that the government is worried about the funding. The Wall Street Journal just did a big piece on this.”</p>
<p>^^^^Perfect reason to NOT BELIEVE IT.</p>
<p>To receive SSDI, you have to have worked in the five years before you file a claim. You also have to qualify according to your work history and how much you paid into SS. Those who haven’t worked long enough are ineligible (this doesn’t count the ways a minor may qualify). THIS BIGGEST ADVANTAVE (IMO) TO BEING SSDI ELIGIBLE, is that you are eligible for Medicare automatically if you have been receiving SSDI for two years, no matter what age.</p>
<p>It is hard to receive. For instance, if you can’t walk, you have to apply for sitting jobs if you can use your hands. I was recently, at Macy’s, waited on by a woman who was OLD and who got around on a scooter and who could barely use her hands.</p>
<p>To receive SSI, you have to be indigent, which is really hard to qualify for. For this you need to have nearly no assets.</p>
<p>There is also corporate liability that pays disability claims, and these are the ones that are really hard to get and vary by state law. This is what lawyers are mainly interested in and they take a big part of the settlement.</p>
<p>It’s a good idea to have private disability insurance, if it is not part of your employment package.</p>
<p>You can not qualify for disability solely on the basis of pain. Ask those in the pinched nerve thread if the had to deal with that pain every day for their entire life if they could maintain a regular work schedule.</p>
<p>I agree on software development. We have one employee that is in a wheelchair almost all the time. He has a special van which he can get in and out of himself that has a motorized wheelchair (he drives the van so I guess there is a way for him to lift himself out of the wheelchair and into the drivers seat). There are buttons on the wall to activate the doors in the building and I’ve even seen him in the fitness center doing the arm-cycle exercise machine.</p>
<p>We have many remote employees but they are usually required to attend conference calls so someone that is deaf might have a disadvantage there but I would guess that a technological solution would be possible for getting automated transcripts.</p>
<p>Hawking is a good example of being able to work despite severe disabilities.</p>
<p>A lot depends on the job requirements and the skill set of the individual. Some employers & jobs have a lot of physical requirements that are part of the job and many of their staff are fine as long as their bodies hold out. When they can no longer physically do such hard physical labor, if they have a very limited skill set, they may find they have to get re-trained IF POSSIBLE or they can’t get another job.</p>
<p>Those of us who do jobs that with a different skill set (more reading, writing, analysis), might NOT be disabled, even when we can no longer lift things weighing 25+ pounds over our heads and therefore might not qualify for disability when we develop arthritis other other physical limitations.</p>
<p>Most folks I know who are on disability wish they could work & get off of it so they could have a higher standard of living and feel they are contributing to the workforce and society. There are many who have multiple disabling health issues but are still unable to qualify for disability & have to spend many years and resources trying. In the meantime, their bills mount and they have difficulty getting medical care, which worsens their health & they get much of their care in ERs.</p>
<p>I guess I’m surprised that you are surprised-or that “you don’t get it.”</p>
<p>Nursing is a career that is tough to do if you are physically disabled. There are a few areas where the physical aspect is less of a requirement (often those jobs require advanced education), but for most nurses, when their bodies begin to wear out, it’s tough to get or keep a job. Many nursing jobs have lifting requirements.</p>
This is true of course but then a lot of people have their niches where they can do their job well but wouldn’t be able to do someone else’s. For example, some of the admins do their jobs well but they’d never be able to handle working in the warehouse and some of the warehouse workers probably couldn’t handle the admin’s job, etc. People need to find the niches open to them and while disabilities decrease the number available in many cases there are still a number available they could handle.</p>
<p>
I couldn’t do that either. I can easily sit at the computer all day long doing software development, which is largely a mental exercise with the computer being used as a tool, but I could never just sit there doing rote data entry but then most people sitting at computers all day long are doing more than simple data entry.</p>
<p>
I had an employee who had some brain damage for some reason and was in a wheelchair all day long and had limited use of his hands but enough to be able to type well enough for software development. He was as good of an employee as anyone else. It didn’t matter that he was in a wheelchair, his eyes didn’t focus normally on a person when talking to you, that the way he held his arms/hands was different - he could still do the job fine. I’ve known at least a couple of other software developers in wheelchairs or without the use of an arm due to nerve damage and similar issues.</p>
<p>I don’t know if some of the above individuals chose software development because of their challenges or if they just happened to be in the career already but if someone has a disability preventing them from doing their job then it’s time to get creative and try to find something else they could do where they’re not limited by their challenge if possible. I know some people do this but some don’t.</p>
<p>ebeeeee–you are very wrong that is it not difficult to qualify for disability…it is still very difficult. SSDI (Social Security Disability Income) is next to impossible to get unless you are totally disabled, not able to work at all. Plans through employers are “any occupation” policies, meaning if you can work at any job, you are not considered disabled, so a sales person that can’t drive any more but can flip burgers isn’t considered disabled. For private plans, most of those will be “your occupation” policies and are a little easier to get but you still need to go through the screening process of that insurance company. I would not “qualify” for a disability under the standard accepted definition (which measures the % of loss and word recognition during hearing tests) doesn’t mean I can hear on the phone though. I was in sales, kind of hard to do sales when you can’t talk on the phone.</p>
<p>A reminder to some here about a broader population aspect- many here have discussed employment of the disabled as it refers to office work. Much work in the U.S. isn’t office work. Numbers that reflect unemployment typically include disabled people that aren’t doing office work.</p>
<p>I can’t believe all of you posters! Are you not aware of the difficulty the average person feels to get a job? Then, add the complications of hiring someone with a disability and magnify that 1,000 times.</p>
<p>The disabilities written about here are mostly physical disabilities. What about mental health? Those are hidden disabilities, but those individuals are just as capable and yet still not hired.</p>
<p>Those statistics are absolutely true. More important though is the fact that someone who has a disability is more often significantly underemployed (if at all). My super bright kid, with a BA, a high gpa, and nearly perfect SATs can’t get a job beyond minimum wage. Why? He doesn’t interview well… simple as that. His Asperger’s hinders him from having chit-chat conversations. He fumbles when he’s given an application, takes too long. Tries to accurately answer every question. Manages to get the interviewer angry for waiting … and boom. He’s back on the pavement wondering what he did wrong. And yet. In his current job, he is always reliable, even when we had a blizzard he got to work. He never takes a break. Lunch is at his computer terminal, still punching numbers. He leaves his phone at home (to his mother’s dismay!) </p>
<p>And yet, he hasn’t gotten a raise since he started at his P/T job 18 months ago. For what it’s worth, **about 22.5% of those 21-64 with disabilities reported working full year, full-time compared to 57% of those 21-64 without disabilities **, the jobless rate for the disabled is consistently 2x as much as the average.</p>
<p>We have a friend who was turned down for SSDI and is trying yet again. His savings are exhausted and he no longer has medical insurance. The only reason he isn’t homeless is because his elderly mother offered him a room in her small home and continues to work years past her expected retirement age to support them both. He has an ADA recognized disability, has been hospitalized over a hundred times, had over a dozen major operations, and is in chronic pain. Between his Crohn’s disease and the serious adverse effects of his Rx meds he has suffered damage to multiple organs and systems. Despite having both his MBA and JD, he was unable to maintain full time corporate employment beyond his twenties. </p>
<p>When a flare up means that one’s day is spent alternating between the bathroom and bed or couch, typically in severe pain, it’s not possible to work. There’s no way to predict how long a flare may last, how serious it will be or whether hospitalization will be necessary yet again. While some Crohn’s patients get lucky for a while and experience extended periods of remission, not all are so fortunate. Those who survive a couple of decades beyond their initial diagnosis, like our friend, may find they have developed a number of other health problems that make working impossible. Even the process of filing for SSDI, and the follow up to the turn down of his first application, has taken a big toll physically as well as mentally. I don’t wonder so much about the correlation between disability and lack of employment, but I do wonder about the correlation between disability and suicide.</p>
<p>My mother worked in nursing and retired in her 80s. In her 50s, she suffered a physical injury on the job with her back which got progressively worse until she had to have surgery in her back where she had a big chunk of metal put in her back. She switched over to doing charge nurse duties then eventually over to administration as her physical problems grew. She’s now in a fitness study of elderly folks and does strength training and cardio work at a facility in Boston and she’s says that people are surprised at what she can do at her age.</p>
<p>So people with disabilities with a lot of experience might be able to move into jobs that can accommodate their disabilities.</p>
<p>I agree with the sentiments about the current job market though. People in great health are having problems securing work.</p>
<p>Yes, there are a lot of unemployed and underemployed folks who have NO need to have any accommodations. It is a VERY TOUGH job market out there. I have no answers about how to make it better but do feel for the many who have tried unsuccessfully to get jobs and keep their jobs when they have increasing physical limitations.</p>
<p>A loved one has a pinched nerve which has had her out on disability for a month and she’ll be out another 3 weeks, for a total of 2 months. She is hoping she will be able to return to work at the end of this month when her disability runs out without having to undergo surgery, which has been recommended by several docs already.</p>
<p>Have met & spoke to MANY folks who would really love to return to work but can’t because their disabilities make it extremely difficult for them. They miss the interaction and the income but their health does not permit them to be in the workplace. They generally have to reduce their standard of living as generally their income drops and their medical bills increase.</p>