Saturday, 4 July 2015

Grieving The Few Job Opportunities For Adults With Intellectual Disabilities

By Edna Booker


If you have intellectual disabilities, you most probably face big challenges due to your conditions. These include having difficulties supporting yourself through a sufficiently paying job. Our government spends billions through programs aimed at getting adults with intellectual disabilities into the workforce. However, the United States sees over half such adults currently working or unsuccessfully searching for jobs.

The SSA or Social Security Administration programs benefit intellectually challenged people. These are those impaired in cognitive or communicative functions, those with low levels of IQ and those with serious impairments in social or personal functions. Administration in Social Security programs provide vital lifelines to such people.

Should you be facing difficulties as you to try to access Social Security benefits as an intellectually challenged person, you may seek the services of an attorney in Portsmouth VA. Such an attorney should specialize in disability rights. They will help you make the initial application. They can also facilitate your appeal against a termination or denial of your disability assistance.

Recent studies show that forty-four percent only of people suffering intellectual infirmities appear among the labour force working or seeking employment. A smaller figure of these, thirty-four percent currently have jobs. This figure is much lower compared to seventy-three percent of the able working people in the workforce. Twenty-eight percent working age people who are disabled have never been in gainful employment.

It is natural to expect that only a few intellectually challenged people have jobs compared to normal people. However, the troubling dilemma of these figures arises from the little progress attained in getting the disabled into employment. This is despite the government huge expenditure. Studies reveal that the percentage of intellectually challenged adults in the workforce has remained stagnant for four decades.

In identifying the number of people having intellectual disabilities within the workforce, use of the defining term disabled is broad. Usually, it identifies a person with an IQ of less than seventy-five. It also identifies a person with limitations where basic life skills are concerned like handling money. The term intellectually disabled also applies to people afflicted by Down syndrome and autism.

Given the opportunity, an adult with cerebral challenges could perform certain assignments very well. Studies reveal that a sixty-two percentage of those disabled but working in a competitive environment have worked well for three years. This shows that if more efforts went towards enlisting the disabled into employment, they would cater for their own self-support or reduce dependence on state. It is important that low performance expectations from intellectually challenged individuals is addressed. It denies such individuals progress opportunities and makes it difficult for them to gain new skills. These obstacles require addressing.

Until most adults having intellectual disabilities have access to gainful employment, they will retain dependence to Social Security Administration disability benefits for their financial support. These benefits could be enough to cater for most adults. However, they have limitations based on past income and state maximums.




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