About Teachability

We are tackling the lack of youth employability, especially for young people with invisible disabilities like Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, as well as for traditional youth job seekers. There are 75 million unemployed young people worldwide and 156 million young workers living in poverty. 60% of youth with invisible disabilities such as autism are unemployed.

In June 2014, only 19.3 percent of people with disabilities in the U.S. were participating in the labor force – working or seeking work. Of those, 12.9 percent were unemployed; meaning only 16.8 percent of the population with disabilities was employed. (By contrast, 69.3 percent of people without disabilities were in the labor force, and 65 percent of the population without disabilities was employed.) (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014)

Key Facts:

• About 1 in 6 children in the United States had a developmental disability in 2006-2008, ranging from mild disabilities such as speech and language impairments to serious developmental disabilities, such as intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, and autism. (CDC, 2008)
• Lack of skills and qualifications limits the employment opportunities for young people with disabilities.
• Unemployment rates for people with disabilities in every nation often exceed 80%.
• Negative attitudes and misconception about disability remain significant obstacles to the successful employment
  of youth with disabilities. Persons with disabilities are perceived as less productive than their  peers, require expensive adaptations to the workplace, and have higher rates of illness and absenteeism.
• Most accommodations do not impose significant financial costs to the employer and even people without disabilities use and benefit from the use of supportive workplace policies and practices.
• For young women with disabilities, the prospects for meaningful employment are even lower, even with a good education.
• These negative perceptions do not correspond with a growing body of research that shows that young people with disabilities are as productive and dependable as their non-disabled peers with lower rates of absenteeism than workers without disabilities. It is speculated that this is because people with disabilities are keenly aware of the limited job options available to them should they lose their current positions.