On July 26, 1990 the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law. This landmark piece of legislation began taking effect in 1992 and ever since has protected the civil rights of people with disabilities in the areas of employment, public services, private entities, and telecommunications . The theme of this year’s ADA anniversary is #ThanksToTheADA, a celebration of the impact the Americans with Disabilities Act has had on the disability community in the United States.

One area where a quantifiable shift can be observed (from the 1990s to the present) is in the labor force. Prior to the enactment of the ADA, in 1990 in the 11-county Atlanta region, just 44,718 people with disabilities were employed.[1] By 2021, that number jumped over 163 percent– to 117,724 disabled people reporting being employed.[2] That growth is over twice as fast as that of the labor force as a whole, which grew only 76.21 percent from 1990-2021.

However the increase in employment for  people with disabilities didn’t happen all at once, nor did it occur in equal measure year to year. Looking back at the annual data from 2009 through 2019, the percentage changes each year in the number of employed disabled people in the 11-county Atlanta region varied widely. As the chart below shows, some years saw small decreases in the number people that were employed with a disability, while other years this population grew by over 10-20 percent. Even more notably, the percent change of the number of people in the labor force that were employed and had a disability shot up over 33 percent between 2019 and 2021 (2020 data were not available).

Source: ACS 1-year Estimates

 

The importance of the Americans with Disabilities Act can also be seen through its impact on the labor force participation rates over the last 33 years. In 1990, the labor force participation rate of people with disabilities was 44.42 percent.[1]  That rate increased considerably to 49.30 percent in 2021.[2] Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate of people without a disability has actually slightly decreased 1990-2021.

Source: 1990 Census and ACS 1-year Estimates

Parity in employment and in many other aspects in the of day-to-day life of people with disabilities remains a goal that is still being strived for. But there’s no denying that the ADA has been critical to equity enhancements becoming reality.

[1] Source: 1990 Census, Civilian noninstitutionalized population 16 to 64 years
[2] Source: 2021 ACS (1-Year Estimates), Civilian noninstitutionalized population 18 to 64 years