Up to 15% of Ohio residents benefit from this federal act signed into law 34 years ago today

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Whether they have hearing, vision, cognitive or ambulatory difficulties, disabled Ohioans are protected through the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed on July 26, 1990.

Signed into law by then-President George H.W. Bush, the ADA is the nation’s strongest measure protecting the civil rights of people with disabilities, barring discrimination based on disability and guaranteeing equal access to public buildings and businesses, employment opportunities, transportation, telecommunications, commercial facilities, and state and local government services.

In Ohio, 14.4% of the state’s total population has some sort of disability, or nearly 1-out-of-7 people, according to the most recent census estimates. This is above the 2022 average in the country of 13.4%, but not the highest overall. Almost 20% of West Virginia has a disability. The state with the lowest rate is Utah, at 10.6%.

The highest percent of disability types in Ohio is ambulatory disability, which affects a person’s ability to walk or move around, making up 48% of people with a disability in the state. This is followed by those with a cognitive disability, which affects a person’s brain capacity, at 41%.

In Northeast Ohio, a number of counties have disability rates higher than even the state average. In Ashtabula County, the disability rate is 15.9%. Cuyahoga County has a rate of 15.4% and Lorain County has a rate of 16.3%

Some disabilities make it difficult to work, and 30% of the state’s population not in the labor force has a disability. However, for those in the labor force, wages are significantly lower than state averages.

Men with a disability made an estimated annual wage of $31,432, compared to those without a disability at $50,306. Women with a disability made an estimated annual wage of $24,132, compared to those without a disability at $35,594, according to census estimates.

As a group, full-time, year-round workers with a disability earn 87 cents for every dollar earned by those with no disability. Additionally, people with a disability are less likely to earn a full-time wage.

Ambulatory, hearing and cognitive are the most common difficulties among workers with a disability, which may have an impact on the type of jobs they can get.

The most common occupations for people with a disability in the United States are janitors and building cleaners, who make up 11% of workers in this occupation. Other large occupations for workers with disabilities are truck drivers, retail, cashiers, and freight, stock and material movers.

The Midwest is the region with the second highest rate of disabilities in the country as of 2021, at 13.1%, following only the South at 13.8%.

Regional disability rates may differ for a variety of reasons. For example, disability is often associated with age, so regions that contain states with a higher proportion of the population age 65 and over may be more likely to report higher rates of disability.

Disability rates in the country, on average, were higher in rural areas than in urban areas, with the regions with the highest percentage of disabled people also having the highest percentage of people living in rural areas (24.8% of the Midwest).

Zachary Smith is the data reporter for cleveland.com. You can reach him at zsmith@cleveland.com.