Unemployment and poverty

The researchers also found that Americans with disabilities are more than twice as likely to live in poverty -- 25.4 percent of working-age Americans with disabilities live in poverty compared with 9.5 percent of those without disabilities. People with disabilities constitute 28 percent of the working-age American population living in poverty.

The Disability Status Report was presented Nov. 7 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., by Cornell researchers in collaboration with the American Association of People with Disabilities.

"The employment gap for people with disabilities is long-standing," said Andrew Houtenville, director of Cornell's Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Demographics and Statistics (StatsRRTC). "They are not participating in the recovery from the 2001 recession."