Disability Facts
- 21% of all veterans enrolled in undergraduate programs report having a disability.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2016). Digest of Education Statistics, 2014 (2016-006), Chapter 3
- In high school, 94% of students with learning disabilities get some kind of help
In college, only 17% of these students take advantage of resources provided by their school.
- The most commonly reported types of disability among undergraduate students in private 4-year US colleges:
- Specific learning disabilities 36%
- ADD or ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) 26%
- Mental illness/psychological or psychiatric condition 13%
- Health impairment/condition, including chronic conditions 11%
- Difficulty hearing 3%
- Mobility limitation/orthopedic impairment 3%
- Autism spectrum disorder 2%
- Difficulty seeing 2%
- Cognitive difficulties or intellectual disability 1%
- Difficulty speaking or language impairment 1%
- Traumatic brain injury 1%
- Other impairments 2%
Source: Raue, K., and Lewis, L. (2011). Students With Disabilities at Degree-Granting Postsecondary Institutions (NCES 2011–018). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
- Approximately 11% of U.S. undergraduates register a disability* with their school
* Students in this survey reported having one or more of the following conditions:
learning disabilities
visual impairment
difficulty hearing or deafness
speech impairment
orthopedic impairment
health impairment
- The actual number of college students with a disability is probably 2 or 3 times higher**
** Nearly 2/3 of students who received accommodations in high school do not self-disclose their disabilities in college
- 57 million people in the U.S. have some sort of disability, and about 1 in 4 of today’s 20-year-olds will become disabled before they retire
- Most common disabilities, Americans 18-44 years old:
- Arthritis or other musculoskeletal: 22.2 million
- Mental illness: 12.9 million
- Fractures or joint injury: 7 million
- Heart or other circulatory: 5.9 million
- Lung: 5 million
- Diabetes: 2.5 million
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2015 American Community Survey, 1-Year Estimates, American FactFinder, Table B18120
- People with disabilities constitute one of the nation’s largest minority groups, and the only group that ANY OF US can become a member of at any time
- Americans with disabilities: 57 million (19% of the population)
- Americans of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin: 57 million
- African Americans: 42 million
- Population of Connecticut: 3.6 million
- Americans with PhDs: 2.5 million
- Around 15% of the world’s population lives with disabilities
- Of the 69.6 million American families, more than 20 million have at least one family member with a disability