Ready, Willing, and Able
July 22, 2025On July 26, the United States celebrates the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, education, transportation, state and local government services, public accommodations, telecommunications, and commercial facilities. This anniversary serves as a good opportunity to celebrate the contributions of people with disabilities in Oregon’s labor force as well as highlight challenges they face.
What Is a Disability?
Definitions of “disability” vary. The Americans with Disabilities Act, which governs many state and federal programs, defines a disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. Other programs have different definitions. The American Community Survey asks respondents if anyone in the home had difficulty with hearing, vision, remembering, walking, dressing, eating, or doing errands.
Many conditions can be disabling. While functional limitations from physical and sensory disabilities may be the more obvious barriers to employment, many other conditions can make it difficult to find or keep a job. Reading disabilities, mental health problems, chemical sensitivities, and medical conditions may not be as noticeable, but they can be just as limiting.
Oregonians with Disabilities
According to the ACS five-year estimates, there were 635,800 people with disabilities in Oregon on average from 2019 to 2023, or 15% of Oregon’s civilian noninstitutionalized population. Ambulatory, cognitive, and independent living difficulties were the most common types of disability, each impacting around 7% of Oregon’s population.
Older people were much more likely to have a disability than the general population. About 34% of individuals aged 65 years and older had a disability, compared to 11% of the population under 64. Ambulatory difficulties showed the most dramatic age-related increase. Twenty percent of seniors reported an ambulatory difficulty compared with 7% of people of all ages.
Disability Rates Vary Across Demographic Groups
The share of the population with a disability varied by race and ethnicity in Oregon. Around 21% of American Indians or Alaska Natives had a disability. This represents the highest percentage of disability for any racial group despite the fact that American Indians or Alaska Natives had a lower median age than the general population.
Similar shares of Oregon’s White alone and Black alone populations had a disability, roughly 16% and 15% respectively. Thirteen percent of those identifying as two or more races reported having a disability, similar to the rate for Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders (11%), those identifying as some other race (10%), and Hispanics or Latinos of any race (10%). Only 8% of the Asian alone population reported having a disability, the lowest of any racial or ethnic group.
Thirty-four percent of veterans over the age of eighteen reported having a disability, almost twice the share of the general population in the same age range. Men and women were equally likely to have a disability; both had rates of about 15%.
Employment Rates and Earnings Lower for People with Disabilities
Oregonians with disabilities had lower employment rates than those without. About 28% of Oregonians aged 16 years or older with disabilities were employed versus 66% of those with no disabilities. This corresponded with a much lower rate of labor force participation. About 69% of Oregonians with disabilities were not in the labor force versus 30% of those with no disabilities.
Individuals with and without disabilities tended to have a different occupational mix. People with a disability were less likely to work in management, business, science, and arts occupations and more likely to work in service, sales and office, and natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations. Similar shares of both groups worked in production, transportation, and material moving occupations.
The different rates of employment in these occupations may be a reflection of different educational outcomes for Oregonians with disabilities. Twenty-two percent of people with a disability had a bachelor’s degree or higher versus 40% of those without a disability. Thirteen percent of people with a disability didn’t graduate high school as opposed to 7% of people without.
These occupational differences were also correlated with lower earnings for people with disabilities. Oregonians with disabilities had median annual earnings of $29,700 compared to $45,800 for Oregonians without disabilities. About 46% of working people aged 16 and over without a disability earned $50,000 or more in the 12 months prior to answering the ACS survey as opposed to 29% of people with a disability.
Increases in Telecommuting Could be Opening Doors
Although individuals with disabilities have much lower employment rates than those without a disability, they’ve seen faster employment growth since the pandemic recession. Between 2013 and 2017, the employment rate for individuals without a disability grew faster than the rate for those with a disability. This trend reversed in 2019, and the difference widened in the following years. According to the ACS five-year estimate for 2023, the employment rate grew by 0.7% for individuals with a disability and shrunk by 0.1% for individuals without a disability.
Research published in the National Bureau of Economic Research by Aru Ne’eman and Nicole Maestas indicates that this increase in employment rates for individuals with disabilities could be due to pandemic-era shifts in working conditions. The authors observe that the disproportionate gain in employment for people with disabilities after the pandemic is unusual after a recession and employment gains have mainly occurred in occupations conducive to teleworking.
The increase in telework and flexible working conditions is likely a contributing factor behind the strong employment growth for people with disabilities. A study by the Kessler Foundation found that lack of transportation and the need for special accommodations represent barriers for a significant number of workers with a disability, meaning that a remote or hybrid work schedule could be contributing to progress in employment.
Gateways to Employment
Several Oregon businesses offer specialized training and job coaching services to people with disabilities. Besides helping disabled workers find and keep jobs, these services can reduce company costs associated with new hires. To find out more about the benefits of hiring workers with disabilities, visit:
the Oregon Resource Association,
the Employment First policy of the Oregon Department of Human Services, and
the Ticket to Work program.
For assistance in hiring people with disabilities, visit the Employer Services site of the Office of Vocational and Rehabilitation Services and the Services for Employers site of the Oregon Commission for the Blind.