PeopleWith 

 Disabilities 



Background. 



An estimated 22 million Ameri- 

 cans of working age have some 

 physical disability, yet only 7.2 

 million of these are employed. The 

 National Science Foundation 

 found only 94,000 disabled scien- 

 tists and engineers working in 

 1986. Today, people with disabili- 

 ties live longer, and are able to 

 pursue careers because of improv- 

 ing medical technology. People 

 with disabilities are a large and 

 growing segment of our popula- 

 tion. 



The Pipeline. 



Low expectations and lack of 

 encouragement are keeping stu- 

 dents with disabilities from par- 

 ticipating fully in mathematics 

 and science, particularly in sci- 

 ence laboratory courses. Parents, 

 teachers and counselors must 

 encourage students with disabili- 

 ties to pursue study of and ca- 

 reers in science and engineering. 

 In 1987, over 1.3 million of the 12.5 

 million students (or 10.5 percent) 

 enrolled in postsecondary educa- 

 tion institutions reported having 

 at least one disability, which 

 makes them the largest "minor- 

 ity". 



Unfortunately no one collects Nationwide statistics on degrees 

 earned by people with disabilities so we cannot present the same 

 analysis as for the other groups. We do note that, at 10.5 percent of 

 the postsecondary education students, people with disabilities repre- 

 sent a large untapped pool of talent for science and engineering. 



26 



