Workers with Disabilities See Long-Delayed Improvement as Job Market Tightens

June 22, 2016 udcom

Workers on the margins of the labor pool often get a second look as the job market heats up. After years of steady job creation, are we now at that point in the business cycle?

A new report from the Labor Department suggests the answer could be “yes.” For working-age persons with disabilities, rates of employment and labor-force participation increased between 2014 and 2015, following steady declines in both measures in the period following the recession, through roughly the end of 2014. (The report’s figures are not adjusted for seasonality.)

Universal Design (UD) is an approach to design that increases the potential for developing a better quality of life for a wide range of individuals. It is a design process that enables and empowers a diverse population by improving human performance, health and wellness, and social participation (Steinfeld and Maisel, 2012). It creates products, systems, and environments to be as usable as possible by as many people as possible regardless of age, ability or situation.