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Under- and unemployment are common problems for people with physical disabilities — while 65 percent of those without disabilities work, just 18 percent of those with disabilities work. Injuries, illnesses and consequent disabilities cost billions of dollars a year in lost productivity and benefits payouts.
Yet many of those with physical disabilities who stop working could have continued working if they had received timely, effective interventions focused on job retention. Enabling even some of these workers to remain employed would lead to enhanced economic self-sufficiency and quality of life, while reducing use of disability insurance programs.
With the RRTC, we will create best practices and new resources, bending the arc to help people maintain steady, fulfilling employment.
Allen Heinemann, PhD
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To promote keeping these workers working, a Department of Health and Human Services agency recently awarded Shirley Ryan AbilityLab's Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research (CROR) a five-year, $4.375 million grant to research and promote positive employment outcomes for people with physical disabilities. This is the first grant of its kind awarded to AbilityLab.
“While many people with functional disabilities are in the prime of their careers, they’re at high risk for job loss and unemployment,” said CROR director Allen Heinemann, PhD. “With the RRTC, we will create best practices and new resources, bending the arc to help people maintain steady, fulfilling employment.”
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Allen Heinemann, PhD
Director, Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research Professor, Department of PM&R, Feinberg School of Medicine, NorthwesternBody
The five-year grant by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) establishes a Rehabilitation Research Training Center (RRTC) on Employment for People with Physical Disabilities.
The grant will fund research, forums, consumer and employer education, and will develop a knowledge translation (KT) strategy that builds on an established KT infrastructure to disseminate and implement findings.
The Center will investigate how chronic pain affects employment; identify the barriers to and facilitators of job retention; develop strategies that support employment for people with Parkinson’s disease and other progressive neurological disorders; and create evidence-based decision support for requesting reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
For the RRTC, AbilityLab will partner with Northwestern University, the University of Washington, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Great Lakes and Pacific Northwest regional ADA centers.
