About 1 in 5 undergraduate students identify as having a disability, yet only 22 percent of disabled young adults hold a bachelor’s degree compared to 42 percent of their non-disabled peers. As we work to close that gap, we also need to consider the connection between a degree and economic opportunity.
Americans are increasingly concerned about both the cost of living and the security of their jobs. Against that backdrop, higher education is making workforce and career readiness a major focus to help learners connect what they study to meaningful careers.
The economic stakes are high. Individuals with a bachelor’s degree are estimated to earn 70% more at the median than those with a high school diploma. That advantage is especially consequential for people with disabilities, whose unemployment rate is twice that of people without disabilities. If higher education is going to deliver on its promise of greater opportunity and economic security, learners need access not only to a credential, but also to the experiences that help translate that credential into a career.
For learners with disabilities, accessibility must be central to that work from the beginning.
A new report from Southern New Hampshire University’s Center for Higher Education Policy and Practice (CHEPP) details just how inaccessible career connectivity remains.
At many institutions, career and disability services operate separately. Students who have successfully navigated accommodations in the classroom can encounter an entirely different system when they pursue an internship, apprenticeship, or job. They may also need to decide whether to disclose their disability again, without clear guidance about when to do so or what accommodations they can request.
Career services might not have expertise in disability accommodations or legal rights. Meanwhile, employers may not know how to build accessibility into internships, hiring processes, and workplaces. Learners are then left to bridge these gaps themselves.
We can build a better system.
When programs and processes are designed to be accessible, all learners spend less time navigating barriers and more time gaining career experience. For learners with disabilities, specifically, it means that when career and disability services work together, they receive coordinated support. And when employers design internships, hiring processes, and workplaces with accessibility in mind, they benefit from talent they might otherwise miss.
Doing this well depends on collaboration across higher education, employers, workforce programs and policymakers. Higher education should strengthen connections between disability services, career services, and workforce programs. We can also help employers build accessible internships and apprenticeships that expand their talent pipelines and connect them with skilled learners who can help meet real workforce needs.
As policymakers work to ensure that higher education provides affordable, quality pathways into the workforce for all learners, they should consider how these systems can better serve learners with disabilities.
Accessibility doesn’t work when it’s a side effort or a set of last-minute fixes, it needs to be central to the learner experience from the start. It must be built into their experience, including the connection between classroom and employment, so that every learner has the opportunity to thrive.
We also need to better understand where that connection is failing. The CHEPP report finds significant data gaps on access to career-connected opportunities and post-college outcomes. Without more information, we're stuck with an incomplete understanding of where learners are encountering barriers and which supports are helping them reach meaningful employment and economic mobility.
Policymakers are also working to reduce barriers earlier in the higher education journey. On Monday, the Senate passed the bipartisan Respond, Innovate, Succeed and Empower (RISE) Act. The bill would make it easier for students with disabilities to use existing documentation, such as an Individualized Education Program (IEP), when seeking accommodations in college. Rather than forcing learners to prove once again they are disabled when they enter higher education. That same focus on removing unnecessary barriers should extend to the transition from college to the workforce. As Congress considers how to better serve learners with disabilities, we urge lawmakers to continue advancing efforts like the RISE Act while also examining how policy can strengthen the connection between education and employment.
Our responsibility is not simply to open the doors to education. We must make sure learners with disabilities can persist, earn meaningful credentials, build workforce-relevant skills, and translate their education into opportunity. If barriers remain anywhere along that pathway, we have more work to do.
