Disability and the Displaced Worker

With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), the employment of persons with disabilities has taken center stage in policy debates. The passage of the ADA could not have come at a more propitious time: the employment situation of persons with disabilities, particularly older workers, has been worsening dramatically for over two decades. In the traditional view, this worsening employment necessarily follows the aging of the population, which puts more of us at risk for chronic disease and impairment. Yelin does not agree with that view, nor with the alternative view that disability compensation programs entice persons with minimal disabilities to leave the work force by providing them with a secure income.
In this controversial new book, Yelin dispels both these views and argues that the welfare state is not to be blamed for the growth in work disability. Rather, Yelin maintains that the growing work disability problem is due to the decline of manufacturing employment, which drove older workers with disabilities out of the labor force as part of a "first-fired" phenomenon. He links disability to changes in all forms of work that made secure full-time employment with a wide range of benefits a thing of the past. Yelin argues that work disability policy and industrial policy must be joined to create a heightened demand for older workers generally and older workers with disabilities in particular. When employers create work environments flexible enough to accommodate people with disabilities, they enjoy the benefits of an exceptionally skilled, able work force - and the economies of a smaller welfare system. Paradoxically, the products of flexible manufacturing have been very successful in the marketplace, demonstrating that what is good for workers with disabilities is also good for all workers and for the economy as a whole.