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Gainful employment can offer significant benefits for people with and without disabilities. It can provide working age adults tangible (e.g., good pay with benefits) and intangible (e.g., social connection) rewards. A good paying job with benefits and opportunities for promotion and social connection is an important contributor to life satisfaction and well-being of workers, their families, and their communities (Freyers, 2006). A rewarding job also represents an important aspect of many people's personal identity by granting social legitimacy, helping people live a life with dignity, and enabling people to view themselves as valued members of society (Freyers, 2006). Importantly, work identity (people's perception of the meaning of their jobs and relationship to their sense of who they are) is strongly related to their health and overall well-being (Freyers, 2006; Hall et al., 2013; Muller et al., 2017).
People with disabilities represent one of the most stigmatized groups in the world (Livneh et al., 2014; World Health Organization, 2011; Yaghmaian et al., 2019). Stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination greatly limit their opportunity to find meaningful work in competitive, integrated employment settings (Chan et al., 2009; Livneh et al., 2014; Yaghmaian et al., 2019). Specifically, the employment-to-population rate for persons with disabilities is 19.1%, three times lower than the employment rate of people without disabilities (65.9%, U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019). This is particularly concerning given that two-thirds of those unemployed with disabilities indicate that they would like to work but cannot find jobs (National Council on Disability, 2007; National Organization on Disability [NOD], 2019a). Further, people with disabilities who are employed tend to be in lower-paying occupations (Kruse et al., 2010). Opportunities for people with disabilities are further impacted by the high poverty rate among members of this population. The poverty rate for individuals with disabilities is significantly higher for people without disabilities (28.5% vs. 12.3%, respectively; Federal Safety Net, 2015). The combined effect of unemployment and poverty on people with disabilities significantly affect their community integration and participation, upward mobility, and physical and mental health well-being (Chan et al., 2017; Hall et al., 2013; Muller et al., 2017).
With the passage of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and the amendments of the Rehabilitation Act in 2015, the federal government has...