Targeted News Service, October 24, 2007, Wednesday

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Targeted News Service

October 24, 2007 Wednesday 2:54 AM EST

HEADLINE: CORNELL UNIVERSITY FACULTY TO PRESENT DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT GAP REPORT IN WASHINGTON NOV. 7

BYLINE: Targeted News Service

DATELINE: ITHACA, N.Y.

BODY:

Cornell University issued the following media advisory:

WHAT: Second annual Cornell ILR School Disability Status Report presentation

WHEN: Wednesday, Nov. 7, 9:30-11 a.m.

WHERE: Room 121, Cannon House Office Building, First and C streets SE, Washington, D.C. 20515

WHO: Free and open to the public

NOTE: Members of the press who wish to arrange an interview with Andrew Houtenville of Cornell University should contact Joe Schwartz at the Cornell Press Relations Office.

A leading Cornell University researcher will present a report Nov. 7 indicating that the employment gap separating working-age Americans with disabilities from their peers without disabilities continues to persist and is showing no signs of abating.

Andrew Houtenville, director of Cornell's Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Demographics and Statistics, will present findings from the second-annual Cornell Disability Status Report on Wednesday, Nov. 7, from 9:30 to 11 a.m. in Room 121 of the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C. The presentation is free and open to the public. Food and beverages will be provided.

In addition to Houtenville's presentation, Anne C. Sommers, policy counsel to the American Association of People with Disabilities, will deliver an address about the disability employment gap in America.

Cornell research finds that 37.7 percent of working-age people with disabilities are employed, compared to 79.7 percent of their peers without disabilities. Researchers at Cornell also found that 25.4 percent of working-age Americans with disabilities are living in poverty, compared to 9.5 percent of those without disabilities.

"The employment gap between people with and without disabilities is long standing," Houtenville said. "There is evidence that it is growing and that people with disabilities are not participating in the recovery from the 2001 recession."

This second-annual disability status report also includes newly released statistics related to disability and employment, education, housing earnings and income. For more information about employment and disability research at Cornell, visit: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/edi/.

Contact: Joe Schwartz, 607/254-6235, 607/351-4221, bjs54@cornell.edu

LOAD-DATE: October 25, 2007