The finding is part of an ongoing series of reports released by Cornell University in collaboration with the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD).
"The longstanding employment gap between people with and without disabilities appears to be getting wider. People with disabilities are not keeping pace in this economy. This employment gap has severe consequences for poverty. People with disabilities are much more likely to live in poverty," said Andrew Houtenville, director of Cornell's Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Demographics and Statistics (StatsRRTC).
The researchers found that the poverty gap is 15.9 percent, that is 25.4 percent of working-age Americans with disabilities live in poverty compared with 9.5 percent of those without disabilities. The report also noted that people with disabilities constitute 28.4 percent of the working-age American population living in poverty.
The reports, which will be issued yearly in the Fall by Cornell, "fill a pressing need for timely and relevant statistics about people with disabilities for policy-makers, advocates and the media," said Houtenville.